TROY, Ala. – The Coastal Carolina women’s basketball team gained an early advantage over Troy and later used a fourth-quarter surge to remain in front of the Trojans for a 97-92 victory Saturday afternoon at Trojan Arena.
The Chants (11-8, 5-3) led for 35:33 of the contest, and surrendered the lead to Troy (7-10, 2-4) for just 1:50 in the fourth quarter before ending the game on a 13-4 run to claim its first road win of the season. It was also the first home loss for Troy this year.
Coastal’s 97 points on Saturday marks its highest offensive output of the season. That included a season-high 56 points in the first half.
Jas Adams responded to a season-low scoring effort at South Alabama this past Thursday with 23 points against the Trojans to lead all players. Coastal’s lone senior, who has surpassed 20 points in six games this season, was held off the board in the fourth quarter until the final 16 seconds, when she hit four crucial free throws to put the game out of reach.
Saturday’s high-scoring affair saw four other Chants finish in double figures, including 21 points by Breelyn Blanding to match her career high. Blanding finished 8-of-13 from the field, and made three of her six attempts from beyond the arc.
Coastal made a season-high 10 3-pointers, including eight in the first half. Kaylin West led the Chants with four triples and finished with 14 points. DJ Williams had a 14-point, 10-assist double-double, and Naheria Hamilton rounded out the double-digit scorers with 12 points.
The Chants held a slight 42-41 advantage in rebounds as Hamilton and Blanding co-led the Chants on the boards with eight apiece.
Troy also had five players score in double figures, led by the 20 points of Amber Rivers. Kayla Robinson (16), Harriet Winchester (14), Jasmine Sanders (10) and Sky’Lynn Holmes (10) also passed that threshold.
Coastal led for the entirety of the first half behind a 55 field goal shooting percentage. The Chants made 21 baskets on 38 attempts, including eight makes from 3-point range. Adams, Blanding and West had all reached double digits in points by the end of the 20 minutes after combining for seven 3-pointers. Troy’s conference-leading offense pushed the pace in the first half with 47 attempts, but the Chanticleer defense held the Trojans to just 19 baskets, including only four 3-pointers.
Coastal had pushed its advantage to 10 points by halftime, and claimed its largest lead of the game, 14 points, at 7:47 of the third quarter after scoring seven unanswered. Troy responded by scoring eight straight points to cut the margin to six points, and then went to work at the free throw line after Coastal put the Trojans in the bonus with half the quarter remaining.
Troy went 16-of-22 at the line for the game, and made 12 of its free throws in the third quarter alone. The Trojans supplemented their free throws with seven field goals to outscore the Chants 28-20 in the third and make it a one-possession game heading into the fourth.
After Troy went ahead by four points at the 6:14 mark of the fourth quarter, Coastal rattled off nine straight points to go back in front by five. Rivers attempted to bring the Trojans back to even, but Adams was able to close out the game at the line.
The Chants return to the HTC Center next week to close out the month of January hosting Arkansas State (Jan. 25) and Little Rock (Jan. 27) at the HTC Center.
