Feb. 22, 2010

Final Stats

Coastal Carolina University women's basketball used a strong defense to defeat Radford 62-50 in Big South Conference action on Monday, Feb. 22 in the Dedmon Center. The Chanticleers picked up their first road league win and advanced their record to 15-10 overall and 6-7 in the Big South, while the Highlanders fall to 5-19 and 4-9 in the league.

The teams began the game exchanging baskets and leads, with Coastal eventually taking an 11-6 lead four-and-a-half minutes into the game. Radford responded by going on an 8-0 run, taking the lead 14-11 with just over 12 minutes to go in the opening period. With Coastal down 16-12, sophomore Olivia Irick hit a trey with just under 10 minutes to play and the Coastal defense did not allow an RU field goal over the next eight minutes as part of a 16-3 that put the Chants up 28-19. Eventually, the Chanticleers entered the halftime locker room with a 30-23 advantage.

Coastal shot 33.3 percent (11-for-33) from the field, while Radford shot 35.7 percent (10-for-28). However, Coastal connected on 3-of-7 three pointers, while RU missed all six attempts. The Chants also forced nine turnovers, converted into a 9-0 Coastal advantage in points off turnovers.

After an early exchange of baskets, the Chanticleer defense put together another stand of almost five minutes and extended the lead to 40-27 with 15:11 remaining. Radford fought its way back, scoring the eight of the next nine points to trim the lead to 41-35 with 8:43 on the clock. However, Coastal had an answer, scoring five straight to push the lead back to 11 and eventually building its biggest lead of the game 54-39, with 3:14 to play to seal the win.

Coastal finished the game shooting 39.6 (21-for-53) from the field, including a solid 50.0 percent (10-for-20) in the second half, while holding Radford to 33.9 percent (21-for-62) from the floor. The difference came at the charity stripe, where the Chants hit 17 of their 25 attempts (68.0 percent), while the Highlanders only went to the line 10 times, converting six of them.

The Chanticleers had three players tally doubles figures, with junior Sydnei Moss leading all scorers with 17 points and narrowly missing the double-double with nine rebounds. Senior Devin Rivers tallied her second double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while senior Kendra Reynolds finished the game with a season-high 14 points and seven rebounds. Leading the Highlanders was Da'Naria Erwin-Spencer with 11 points. Kymesha Alston posted a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds, as the only other RU player in double figures.

Coastal will finish up a four-game road swing at Winthrop on Monday, March 1 at 7 p.m.