STATESBORO, Ga. – The Coastal Carolina women’s basketball team trailed Georgia Southern for nearly 38 minutes of action in Thursday night’s game at Hanner Fieldhouse, but the Chants outscored the Eagles 28-18 in the fourth quarter to grind out a 76-73 win. DJ Williams scored 14 of her game-leading 25 points in the fourth, and Caitlin Roche knocked down the game-winning 3-pointer with two seconds remaining.
Coastal (14-10, 6-7) trailed by as many 10 points in the second half and entered the fourth quarter down by seven. Naheria Hamilton scored Coastal’s first six points of the final frame before Williams took over.
With Georgia Southern (7-18, 2-12) leading by seven, Williams scored all 14 of her fourth-quarter points in the final four minutes of the game, including a three-point play that gave Coastal its first lead of the night, 73-72, with just 23 seconds remaining. GS’s Alexis Brown made one of two free-throw attempts to tie the game with 15 seconds to go before Roche drained the final shot.
Williams had 21 of her 25 points in the second half, and finished the game 9-15 from the field and 6-9 at the line. Roche was Coastal’s second-leading scorer with 15 points, and was just 2-11 from 3-point range before hitting the game winner. Hamilton added 10 points and nine rebounds.
Williams and Georgia Southern’s Brown entered the game as the Sun Belt’s co-leaders in scoring averaging 17.4 points per game. Brown finished the game with 20 points, and was one of three Eagles to reach double digits along with Nakol Franks (17) and Hailey Dias-Allen (13).
Coastal shot 42 percent for the game, but hit at an impressive 73 percent rate in the final quarter making 11 of 15 shots. The Chants also held a 47-37 advantage in rebounds, including 22 offensive rebounds that led to 23 second-chance points.
Georgia Southern got out to a quick lead by scoring the game’s first eight points and forcing Coastal to burn a timeout early. The Chants scored seven straight points coming out of the break, but were unable to close the gap entirely. The Eagles finished the opening quarter on an 11-4 run over the last four minutes to carry a 22-13 lead into the second.
The Chants tied the game late in the second quarter, 30-30, but GS scored five unanswered points and held Coastal off the board for the final 4:22 of the first half to take a 34-30 lead into halftime.
In the third quarter, Georgia Southern claimed the largest lead of the game, 50-40, following a 12-4 run that spanned four minutes of action.
Coastal has now won three straight games and six of its last seven. Williams has scored 22 or more points in each of Coastal’s last three games, and Roche extended her streak of scoring in double digits to seven games.
Coastal finishes off its road trip on Saturday when the Chanticleers head to Georgia State for a 2 p.m. game at GSU Sports Arena.