MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Freshman DeVante Jones scored a career-high 32 points in leading Coastal Carolina to a 109-91 victory at West Virginia in the second round of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) on Monday night in Morgantown, W.Va.
The 109 points was a season-high for the Chants and it also broke a record for the most points scored by a West Virginia opponent in the WVU Coliseum. The old record was 107 points set back in 1971 by Notre Dame. CCU’s 109 points was the most points the Chants had scored since a 116-35 win over Piedmont International in 2015.
Jones was on target from the start of the game, hitting 10 of his 15 field goal attempts, including six-of-eight on his three-point field goal attempts. He was also perfect at the free throw line hitting all six of his attempts.
He had plenty of offensive help in the postseason victory as a season-high six Chanticleers reached double-digits including all five starters. Tommy Burton reached a career-high with 16 points and Zac Cuthbertson hit for 15.
Ebrima Dibba scored 14 points, while Ajay Sanders and Tyrell Gumbs-Frater scored 11 points each.
The Chants shot 58 percent (43-74) from the field, and that includes a blistering 67 percent (26-39) in the second half alone.
CCU shot 46 percent on its three-point field goals hitting 13-of-28 and hit 10 of their 12 free throw attempts.
A big part of the game was the Chanticleers ability to win the rebounding battle at 41-37. Cuthbertson had a team-high eight rebounds and Jones added seven.
The Chants also did a good job sharing the basketball, finishing the game with 18 assists. The freshmen duo of Dibba and Jones did most of the distributing with Jones finishing with a game-high seven and Dibba with six.
West Virginia was able to put six players in double digits with Emmitt Matthews and Lamont West scoring 21 each. Chase Harler came off the bench to score 15 and Jermaine Haley had 12. Jordan McCabe and Derek Culver scored 11 each.
The Mountaineers shot 42 percent from the field and hit 10 threes to finish shooting 31 percent from long range. The hosts were able to get to the free throw line twice as many times as CCU hitting 19 of their 23 attempts (83 percent).
Coastal rode the hot shooting of Jones and his 20 points into the locker room at halftime with a 50-36 lead. The 50 points marked the third time this season the Chants scored 50 or more points in the opening half.
CCU shot 49 percent in the opening half and also hit seven three’s while shooting 44 percent from beyond the three-point line in the first 20 minutes of play. Sanders had nine points and Burton had seven to lead the Chants into the halftime break.
The Mountaineers shot 33 percent from the field in the first half with Haley scoring 10 points to lead the home team.
With the win, the Chanticleers will move into the semifinals to face DePaul in Chicago. It will be a quick turnaround for the Chanticleers as they will play the Blue Demons Wednesday, March 27 at 8 p.m. (ET).