Feb. 20, 2010

Final Stats

Despite a furious late rally, Coastal Carolina University's women's basketball squad came up short in the final seconds at Liberty, 57-55 on Saturday, Feb. 20 in the Vines Center. The Chanticleers fell to 14-10 overall and 5-7 in the Big South Conference while Liberty improved to 19-5 overall and 9-2 in the league.

Liberty began the game scoring two lay-ins to take a quick 4-0 lead in the opening minute. Coastal went on a 9-2 run, capped off by a Katie Ahaus three-pointer, to get their first lead of the game at 9-6 with 14:27 remaining in the first stanza. The two teams exchanged baskets for the next two minutes until Liberty went on 11-0 run over almost six minutes to take a 20-14 lead with 7:33 left in the half. The Chanticleers closed the gap by hitting their three pointers, trimming the margin to 25-22 with just under five minutes remaining in the half. The teams battled until the end of the half, with Liberty owning a 33-29 advantage going in the halftime locker room.

In the first half, the Chanticleers had trouble from the free-throw line, hitting just four of nine opportunities while Liberty went 7-for-10 from the stripe. The Chanticleers kept it close by connecting on 62.5 percent (5-for-8) from beyond the arc, with Stull hitting 3-for-4.

Liberty continued to work the ball inside for its points, but the Chanticleers answered with two threes from Sydnei Moss and Stull to trim the lead to 40-37 with just over 17 minutes remaining the game. After a Kendra Reynolds' bucket made it a three-point game with 14 minutes to go, the Chanticleers' shooting went cold for a six-minute span as the Flames went on a 9-0 run to build a 51-39 lead at the 7:47 mark. Liberty maintained the lead and had an 11-point margin at 55-44 with 3:37 remaining. A quick 9-0 Coastal run over the next two minutes, including six from Moss, made it 55-53 Liberty with 1:26 left in the game. The Flames' Devon Brown responded by hitting a lay-up that gave Liberty a 57-53 lead with 37 seconds left. The Chanticleers answered with Stull hitting two free-throws, making it a one-possession game again at 57-55 with 44 seconds remaining. Liberty got the ball and held it allowing the clock to tick down to 17 seconds before Devon Brown missed a lay-in and the possession went back to Coastal. The Chants had one last opportunity to tie game up but could not convert it as the clock went to zero.

Liberty hit 47.9 percent (23-for-48) from the floor, while Coastal followed with 45.2 percent (19-for-42) percent. The Chanticleers were hot from beyond the arc, going 50 percent (9-for-18), while the host Flames didn't score from the three-point line. However, the Flames outscored the Chanticleers 44-12 in the paint, outscored Coastal 11-8 at the free throw line and held a slight 28-26 advantage on the boards.

Moss and Stull had game-high 19 points each, with Moss grabbing three rebounds and Stull hitting 5-for-8 from beyond the arc. Leading Liberty was Brown and Amber Mays with 14 and 12 points, respectively.

Coastal will stay in Virginia to take on Radford on Monday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.