CONWAY – Elijah Wilson scored the final eight points including a layup with 2.2 seconds left as Coastal Carolina beat Grand Canyon 60-58 Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.
Wilson finished with 16 points, five rebounds and three blocks. The effort gave Coastal a spot in the CIT Final Four on Sunday.
Coastal Carolina trailed 58-52 with 3:37 to play when Wilson caught fire. He hit a 3 to cut GCU’s lead to 58-55 with 2:23 left. That was followed by a free throw and an acrobatic layup to tie the game 58-58 with 0:45 to go. He asked for the ball during a timeout with 0:13 left, and when teammate Shivaughn Wiggins passed it to him, he drove along the baseline for the winning shot.
“I hit the 3 and the other 2, and I just felt confident enough,” he said. “And luckily my teammates felt confident in me to give me the ball, and fortunately I made the right play to score at the end.”
Marcus Freeman added 10 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. The Chanticleers play again Sunday, but won’t know the location, time or opponent until the other CIT quarterfinal games have wrapped up Thursday night.
