CONWAY, South Carolina — In their first postseason game in seven years, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore went through their roughest shooting night of the season as they fell 66-42 to the Coastal Carolina University Chanticleers in the first round of The Basketball Classic.
"I was proud of what we did defensively in some spots by holding this team to 66 points which is good as they are a really good up-tempo team," head coach Jason Crafton said. "I just thought once they went to their zone, we started taking too many threes."
Both teams struggled to hit a basket in the opening minutes. Each squad missed their first five shots as junior Da'Shawn Phillip hit a three at the 17:11 mark to score the game's first points. The tough shooting continued as the game was tied at seven at the under 12:00 media timeout.
Junior Kevon Voyles hit a shot behind the arc and that was followed by a dunk by senior Zion Styles to put the team up 15-14 with 7:11 on the clock. CCU hit a free throw 30 seconds later to tie the game at 15. Eastern Shore then got back to back layups from senior Donchevell "Tuka" Nugent and Styles to go up 19-15 with 4:22 on the clock.
Unfortunately, that was the last field goal the Hawks made in the first half. Coastal Carolina went on a 12-1 run to end the opening half as they led 27-20 at the break.
The Chanticleers continued their run into the second half as they led 39-24 with 16:01 left in the game. At that point, CCU was on a 24-5 run from the end of the first half to the beginning of the second half.
Phillip made a fast break layup with 10:51 on the clock to make the score 44-31. The Chants then scored eight straight points to pull away. Senior Mike Mensah and Voyles hit back to back shots from long distance to make the score 52-37 with 5:46 left.
Eastern Shore would hit just two more shots for the rest of the game. Coastal Carolina would outscore the Hawks 14-5 to end the game and advance to the next round of the tournament.
Maryland Eastern Shore shot 26.7% from the field against CCU. That was the worst percentage of the season. They also went 7-34 (20.6%) from long distance which was one of the lowest of the percentages of the season as well.
"If you are going to take 34 threes, you have to make more than seven, so I didn't love our shot selection in the second half and I think that was the change in the game," Crafton said.
Voyles had 12 points to lead the team in scoring, while Styles finished with 10. Styles also pulled down a team high in rebounds with seven.
Rudi Williams scored a game-high 18 points for Coastal Carolina. He was named the MVP of the game. Vince Cole and Ebrima Dibba were also in double figures for the Chanticleers with 15 and 11 points respectively.
The Hawks finished the season 11-16. After not playing in the 2020-21 season, the team was able to more than double their win total from two seasons ago when the team won just five games.
"We have to continue to develop our current players, while actively recruiting new talent to improve our roster as we strive to make the next step," Crafton said.
