Box Score CONWAY, S.C. – Charleston Southern led by as many six points in the first half and battled defending Big South champion Coastal Carolina to a one or two possession game throughout the second half before falling, 83-74, in its league opener at The HTC Center on Saturday afternoon.
CSU (6-6, 0-1 Big South) and Coastal Carolina (11-3, 2-0 Big South) staged exactly the type of hotly contested game they played twice in the span of six days last March. Coastal won those games by a combined seven points, and edged the Bucs Saturday in a matchup that featured six ties and six lead changes. Neither side led by more than six points until the final 30 seconds.
CSU trailed 75-71 with 44 seconds left following an Aaron Wheeler layup and had a chance to cut its deficit to a point moments later off a Coastal turnover. Danny Upchurch misfired on a three-pointer, though, and the Chanticleers scored eight of the final eleven points to seal the victory. Coastal went a perfect 10-of-10 at the free throw line over the last 1:51 to triumph.
CSU senior Saah Nimley tallied a game-high 26 points to lead four Bucs in double figures scoring. Will Saunders recorded 11 of his 14 points after halftime to help CSU cut the Coastal lead to one point on six different occasions. Coastal senior Warren Gillis scored a team-high 18 points for the Chanticleers, while Josh Cameron added 17 and Badou Diagne contributed a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Nimley scored 18 of his points in the first half and caught fire from three-point range to spur CSU to a six-point advantage at the 5:36 mark of the opening period. Cameron went for 14 points and four of his five threes in the first half, and helped Coastal send the game into halftime tied at 36 apiece.
Wheeler gave Charleston Southern its final advantage, 47-46, with a three-point play in the lane at the 13:19 mark. He added a pull-up jumper moments later to tie the game, 49-49, but Coastal scored five straight and led the remainder of the way.
Saunders snapped out of his shooting funk to go 4-of-7 from three, and twice brought CSU within a point. The second occasion came with 6:23 left, as Saunders drained a trey in transition off a pretty pass from Upchurch. Nimley fed Paul Gombwer for a layup, and connected on two free throws to twice more cut the Coastal lead to a point.
Gillis sailed through a turn-around jumper from the low post, and Tristian Curtis made a layup to elevate Coastal's lead to 67-62 with 3:09 remaining, and CSU could not close within a score after.
Nimley missed the final six games of last year, and eight overall and made the most of his return to Big South Conference action. He scored eight straight points at one point in the first half and finished the opening 20 minutes with 18 points on 4-of-7 three-point shooting and a 6-of-7 clip at the line.
Coastal posted its best shooting performance of the season in its league opener win over High Point, and built a 13-7 lead behind stellar shooting. Nimley answered with eight straight CSU points and eight of ten overall to tie the game at 15-15. He hit a pair of deep threes and buried two free throws as well. Nimley would pump in two more treys, and Saunders made one, to help the Bucs push their advantage to 30-24.
Cameron answered Nimley's three-point barrage with two of his own in a span of 37 seconds to put Costal back in front, 36-34. Cedrick Bowen accounted for the final points of the first half and sent the game into intermission tied with a two-handed dunk follow of an Arlon Harper miss. Bowen scored nine of his 11 points in the first half, and grabbed three offensive rebounds to help the Bucs to a plus-7 advantage in second chance points.
Harper and fellow senior Paul Gombwer paced CSU with eight rebounds each. CSU out-rebounded Coastal, 35-32, in a battle of the 50th and 5th leading rebounding margin clubs in the country. The Bucs grabbed 16 offensive rebounds to the Chanticleers' nine.
CSU returns to the Buc Dome on Monday for its Big South home opener against Campbell. Tipoff between the Bucs and Fighting Camels is set for 7:30 p.m. Six of CSU's next nine games are at home.
