CONWAY, S.C. – The Coastal Carolina men's basketball team will end the home portion of the 2020-21 regular season when they host Georgia Southern on Sunday, Feb. 21 at 1 p.m. ET at the HTC Center. The game will be a makeup game of Saturday's game that needed to be moved due to COVID-19 protocols within the Georgia Southern program.
The Chants enter the game at 12-6 overall and 6-5 in the Sun Belt, while the Eagles (12-10 / 6-7) are just a game and a half behind the Chants in the Sun Belt East Division.
The series is even at six wins for each team. Earlier in the year, these teams met in Statesboro, Ga., with the Chants winning the first game 79-62 and the Eagles winning the second game 61-58 on a three-point basket with less than a second remaining for the winning basket.
The Chants have not played since losing two games at South Alabama back on Feb. 5-6 and are on a season-long three-game losing streak. With the combination of the three losses, and then having its' next three games canceled, the Chants have fallen from first place in the East Division of the Sun Belt to third, trailing South Alabama by two games and second-place Appalachian State by a half a game.
Georgia Southern enters the game a little wounded having won only two of their last six games. They are seventh in the Sun Belt in scoring averaging 72.9 points per game. They have a balanced scoring attack but only two players Zack Bryant (13.6) and Eric Boone (11.4) average in double figures.
Prince Toyambi is the Eagles leading rebounder averaging 5.8 per game while Brian has a team-best 17 blocked shots and shoots over 80 percent at the free throw line.
On a team that has a conference-best 189 steals this season, Boone is the leader with 48 while Bryant has 24.
CCU will counter with the Sun Belt's highest-scoring offense (81.8), despite having three consecutive sub-par shooting games. The Chants also continue to lead the conference in scoring margin (14.2) and field goal percentage (.474). They have dropped to second in three-point field goal percentage (.386) and second in assists per game (16.3).
All-everything
DeVante' Jones continues to lead the Chants on both sides of the ball. He leads a quartet of players in double-digit scoring at 20.6 points per game. Joining him are
Deanthony Tipler (16.1),
Tyrik Dixon (11.2) and
Essam Mostafa (10.7).
Jones has solidified himself as one of the top players in the Sun Belt this season. On top of his scoring prowess, he also leads the Sun Belt and is tied for the national lead as well in total steals with 58. His name is also listed among the league's best in rebounding (No. 9), field goal percentage (No. 13), assists (No. 9), free throw percentage (No. 2), three-point percentage (No. 8), three-point field goals made (No. 8), assist-turnover ratio (No. 8), defensive rebounds (No. 10), and minutes played (No. 9).
Mostafa's 8.6 rebounds per game leads the Chants while
Ebrima Dibba leads the team with 96 assists and is next in steals with 28.
The Chants will honor their two seniors before the start of the game as
Garrick Green and
Tyrik Dixon will be recognized before the opening tip.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ (subscription required). Live stats will also be available at
www.GoCCUsports.com.
For complete coverage of CCU men's basketball, follow the Chants on social media @CoastalMBB (Twitter), facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (Facebook), @GoCCUSports (Instagram) or visit the official home of Coastal Carolina Athletics at goccusports.com.
