CONWAY, S.C. – Coastal Carolina extended its winning streak to five games and matched the program record for most consecutive Sun Belt Conference victories with an 85-67 win over Southern Miss on Saturday afternoon at the HTC Center.

With the victory, Coastal improved to 13-9 overall and 6-4 in Sun Belt play, while Southern Miss fell to 11-11 overall and 5-5 in the league. The win marked Coastal's first five-game winning streak since the 2018-19 season and continued the Chanticleers' surge in the Sun Belt standings.

"I thought the atmosphere today was awesome, especially on the front end of a winter storm arriving," Chanticleers head coach Justin Gray said. "We fed off that energy with an avalanche of shots that went in. You could feel the emotion from the fans, and that fed into our guys and helped us get off to fast start."

The Chanticleers opened the game 9-of-9 from the field and made their first five 3-point attempts to seize early control, building a 23-9 lead in the first six minutes behind their red-hot start.

Coastal carried a 39-25 advantage into halftime.

Southern Miss cut the deficit to 48-39 with 12:16 to play, but Coastal responded by pushing the lead back to double digits and stretching the margin to 21 in the final minutes.

"This is probably the closest we've gotten to playing 40 minutes, and we still have so many areas we can grow in," Gray said. "Its hard to win, so you want to enjoy the win you have. I'd rather win and learn than lose and learn."

Coastal shot 53.6% from the field and knocked down 14 3-pointers. Rasheed Jones led the Chanticleers with 24 points, going 8-of-13 from the field and 7-of-10 from beyond the arc, while also adding five assists and four steals. Joshua Beadle scored 22 points and went a perfect 8-for-8 at the free-throw line, while AJ Dancler added 20 points to go with eight rebounds and three assists. Reggie Hill finished with 11 points and made three 3-pointers.

Southern Miss was led by Tylik Weeks with 22 points, while Israel Hart scored 18 and Djahi Binet added 16.

Coastal travels to South Alabama and ULM next week for a pair of Sun Belt road games.


POSTGAME NOTES
• Coastal stretched its winning streak to five games, its first five-game winning streak since the 2018-19 season (Jan. 19-Feb. 2).
• The Chants matched the school record for most consecutive Sun Belt victories with five.
• Coastal has a winning record through 10 conference games for the first time since starting Sun Belt play 6-4 in 2020-21.
• The Chants are four games over .500 for the first time since finishing the 2021-22 season five games over at 19-14.
• Coastal improved to 2-2 all-time against Southern Miss and 1-1 inside the HTC Center.
• Posted its best shooting performance of the season, connecting on 29-of-51 (.569) of its field goal attempts.
• CCU shot over 50% in both halves for the third time this season (Virginia University of Lynchburg, at Marshall).
• Coastal's 14 3-pointers were its most since making 14 against Western Illinois on Nov. 21, 2025.
• Beadle, Dancler and Jones each scored 20 points, marking the first time three Chanticleers reached 20 in the same game since Nov. 28, 2020.
• The trio has combined for 60+ points four times this season.
• Beadle scored 20 or more points for the fourth time in the last five games, Dancler for the third time in four games and Jones for the second time in three games. Beadle and Jones each have eight 20-point performances this season, while Dancler has six.
• Jones made a career-high seven 3-pointers, the most by a Chanticleer since Jordan Battle made seven against South Alabama last season (Feb. 2, 2025). His four steals matched his career-high set at Georgia State last season (Jan. 11, 2025).
• Hill scored in double figures for the sixth time this season.