CONWAY ---- Coastal Carolina women's basketball used a dominant third quarter to propel itself to a 55-44 victory over Jacksonville State on Saturday afternoon at the HTC Center. The Chanticleers outscored the Gamecocks 19-8 in the period to improve to 6-1 on the season.
Savannah Brooks led the way for Coastal with 18 points. A junior, she posted 10 in the first quarter alone and scored 13-straight Chanticleer points during an 8-minute stretch between the end of the first and beginning of the second quarter.
Coastal Carolina held a 31-26 advantage at the midway point after holding the Gamecocks scoreless the final 4:51 of the first half. The Chants later stormed out of the break to a quick 6-0 run to push the lead to 37-26 less than 3 minutes into the second half.
The Gamecocks found success in the fourth quarter, but it wouldn't be enough as Coastal closed out the victory to earn its best seven-game start to a season since 2021.
CCU held Jacksonville State to just two made three-pointers, the fewest the Gamecocks have made this season after averaging shooting 34 percent from behind the arc coming into the game.
"The message we talked about all week was I know they're making a lot of threes," head coach
Kevin Pederson said. "They're one of the top teams in the country when it comes to that. We focused on the threes come from the pull and kick. So, we really focused on the drives a lot more than we focused on defending the shots. We felt like if we could stop the drives and rebound that we would be OK."
Keeping to the defensive theme, Coastal did not allow a point the final 3:25 of action while it forced three turnovers during that stretch. CCU forced 15 turnovers overall thanks in part to seven steals.
The Chanticleers return to action Dec. 15 when they travel to face Presbyterian at 2 p.m. inside the Templeton Center.
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.
