PENSACOLA, Fla. – Senior forward Aja Blount scored a career-high 41 points to lead the Coastal Carolina women's basketball team to a first-round win over Arkansas State to open the 2022 Hercules Tires Sun Belt Women's Basketball Tournament on Wednesday afternoon. With the win, the Chanticleers improved to 15-10 overall, while the Red Wolves finished the season at 12-16 with the loss.
Blount's 41 points are the most by a Sun Belt Conference Player this season.
Aside from the game-high from Blount, Tyra Brown and Arin Freeman chipped in with 17 and 10 points, respectively. A-State's Jireh Washington, who finished with 30 points, did everything under the sun to match Blount point-for-point. Washington was helped by Lauryn Pendleton (14 points), Morgan Wallace (13 points), and Mya Love (13 points) as all were in double figures.
The two teams played evenly throughout the first quarter of action, with the Red Wolves taking a four-point lead early before the Chanticleers stormed back to even the game up on baskets by Blount and Blayre Shultz. After trading baskets back-and-forth, Coastal jumped out to a six-point advantage on scores by Janae Camp, Jordyn Newsome, and Blount. A-State raced back to even the score up at 17-17 on a Pendleton fast-break layup.
Coastal opened its offense in the second quarter with a Deaja Richardson three-pointer and a pair of Freeman free throws before Blount scored the last nine points for the Chanticleers for a 35-24 halftime margin.
CCU's Blount opened the third period of action with an old fashion three-point play and then back-to-back three-pointers from the top of the key before assisting on a Freeman jumper from long range to open the Coastal lead to 49-30. The Red Wolves moved their defense to a box-n-one to get Blount under control. With 4:59 remaining in the third quarter and the score 49-36, Coastal got a three-pointer from Brown to push the lead to 18 for the Chants. Janeen Camp scored her only points in the contest to put CCU up 62-43 at the end of the third period.
Arkansas State ramped up its defensive pressure to try to get back into the contest but was unable to get closer than 11 even though they outscored the Chants 33-29 in the final period of the contest. Blount turned the game over to Brown who scored 14 of her 17 points in the final period and went 8-of-9 from the free throw line. Coastal wrapped up the game by going 19-of-24 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.
Coastal Carolina won the rebound battle for the 23rd time of the year by outrebounding A-State 49-25 with Janeen Camp grabbing a game-high 13 boards. CCU finished 28-of-51 for 54.9 percent while ASU was 24-of-69 for a 34.8 shooting percentage.
The Chanticleers will return to the hardwood on Friday, March 4, to take on the top seed Troy Trojans at the 2022 Hercules Tires Sun Belt Women's Basketball Championship in Pensacola, Fla., at the Pensacola Bay Center. The opening tip-off is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET.
For complete coverage of CCU women's basketball, follow the Chants on social media @CoastalWBB (Twitter), facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (Facebook), @GoCCUSports (Instagram), or visit the official home of Coastal Carolina Athletics at www.GoCCUsports.com.
