Chris Gradnigo scored a career-high 24 points to lead the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers to a 71-58 victory over the Charleston Southern Buccaneers on Saturday at Kimbel Arena in Conway, South Carolina.
CCU held Charleston Southern to just 30 percent shooting from the field. Coastal's defense has held opponents to under 50 percent shooting in each of their last 22 games. The Chanticleers, who are ranked second in the nation in field goal percentage, shot 51 percent against CSU.
Kierre Greenwood had 19 points, Anthony Raffa added 15 for CCU. Jon Pack was the top rebounder with 10 for the Chanticleers. Arlon Harper led Charleston Southern with 22 points.
Coastal trailed by four with under six minutes to play before halftime. The Chants went on a 22-7 run and never looked back. Gradnigo had a pair of monsterous dunks in the second half to work the home crowd into a frenzy. It was CCU's sixth straight win over Charleston Southern. The Chants are 6-0 in conference home games this season.
Coastal Carolina (17-5, 10-2) will host the Campbell Camels at Kimbel Arena in Conway on Tuesday, February 7 at 7 p.m.
On Sunday, February 5th at noon, WPDE NewsChannel 15 Sports Director Rich Chrampanis will sit down with Coastal Carolina head coach Cliff Ellis for another edition of the Cliff Ellis Show. On this week's show, you'll get a tour of CCU's new basketball home next season. Also on the show, highlights from the Charleston Southern game and player interviews. Coach Ellis will also interview his leading scorer Anthony Raffa on Chants Corner and look ahead at Coastal's next game against Campbell.
