Chanticleers end Mountaineers’ Season with Dominant Performance

Matchup
FG	43-74	31-74
Field Goal %	58.1	41.9
3PT	13-28	10-32
Three Point %	46.4	31.3
FT	10-12	19-23
Free Throw %	83.3	82.6
Rebounds	41	37
Offensive Rebounds	15	19
Defensive Rebounds	26	18
Team Rebounds	0	0
Assists	18	21
Steals	6	5
Blocks	1	3
Total Turnovers	11	11
Fouls	18	13
Technical Fouls	0	0
Flagrant Fouls	0	0

The West Virginia Mountaineers (15-21) allowed the most points in WVU Coliseum history in the 109-91 beatdown in the quarterfinals of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) by the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (17-16).

The Chants came into the game shooting 36.5% from behind the arc, and in the previous three games, 24.6%. Ignited by a 10-0 run, Coastal Carolina took control of the game early, behind making open threes, hitting 5-10 and taking a 12-point lead (26-14) midway through the first half.

West Virginia’s defense was non-existent from start to finish. WVU was getting beat back on transition that led to several open three’s and easy baskets around the rim. In half-court defense, freshmen guards DeVante Jones and Ebrima Dibba took advantage of the soft Mountaineer defense driving to the hole for the lay-in or dishing it out to the open shooter, with ease.

“I think this game, like a lot of games this year that we lost control of is we let other teams swing first.” Said freshmen point guard Jordan McCabe. If you put it in a fighting analogy, you want to be the guy that swings first in this game. We’ve been talking about that all season. We started to do it and then a little bit of regression tonight. On top of the fact that they shoot 56% due to the lack of defense. You’re not going to win any games like that.”

The Mountaineers offense lacked continuity and found themselves taking a lot of deep threes. WVU was without the focal point of their offense in the first half in freshmen Derek Culver for discipline reasons. According to West Virginia head Coach Bob Huggins after the game, Culver was late for pregame.

Coastal Carolina built a 16-point lead in the first half led by Jones’ 20 first half points and four assists. The Chants shot 17-36 (48.6%) and 7-16 (43.8%) from three, while West Virginia was 13-39 (33.3%) from the field and 4-18 (22.2%) from deep.

“We had no bounce – had no pep in our step. They got to every loose ball.” Said Huggins.

Derek Culver started the second half, and although he scored a quick five points, the Chants started the second half hitting their first seven shots and went 15-18 from the field including 4-5 from three-point range to build a 25-point lead with 12:56 left in the game.

The defense had picked up; however, Coastal Carolina was hitting shots from everywhere on the floor, even with a defender in their face.

The Mountaineers never got within striking distance, cutting the deficit to only 18 points and was run off their home floor by the sixth place team in the Sun Belt Conference. The Chants last power five conference win came on December 5^th, 2014 and coincidentally, it was on the road at Auburn 58-54,

“It kills me because I know, 65 hundred people show up man. Show up and start to believe in these guys and we do this. It’s just, hard.” Stated Huggins.