Sophomores Shine in Loss at Coastal Carolina
12/30/2009 3:19:00 AM | Men's Basketball
CONWAY, S.C. - Ben Drayton III scored 17 points, all in the second half, and Colby Wohlleb set a career-high with 15 points, but the combined effort from the sophomores could not lead Georgia Southern past Coastal Carolina Tuesday night (December 29). The Chanticleers came away with a 76-64 win in Kimbel Arena and improved their record to 12-2, surpassing their win total for 2008-09.
Trailing by 13 points, 51-36, in the second half, Drayton (St. Marys, Ga.) erupted for Georgia Southern draining back-to-back treys before Wohlleb (Boca Raton, Fla.) hit his fourth of the contest, bringing the score to 53-45. Drayton pushed his offensive run to 10 points on two jumpers, to slash the Coastal lead to five, 54-49. A quick 6-0 Chanticleer run reversed Drayton's effort and widened Coastal Carolina's lead to 60-49. CCU maintained a steady advantage with the Eagles cutting the deficit to single digits at 68-60 with 3:56 left. But CCU went 6-of-9 down the stretch from the charity stripe to finish out a 76-64 win in Kimbel Arena.
"Coastal Carolina is a very good team and they are at the point right now where they believe they are going to win every game," said head coach Charlton Young, a former assistant at Auburn under current Coastal Carolina head coach Cliff Ellis. "We made a couple pushes against them and they cracked a little. I am very proud of the team for their will and competitiveness and we will continue to get better as we get further into conference play."
With three assists but no points in the first half, Drayton was the leading scorer for the Eagles finishing with 17 points going 6-of-10 from the floor and 3-of-5 from three-point land. Wohlleb added a career-high in points and career-best five treys to finish with 15 points. Tyler Troupe (Gallatin, Tenn.) led the Eagles with seven rebounds, but GS was edged out on the boards 32-33.
CCU picked up 38 points in the paint led by Chad Gray who finished with a game-high 24. Mario Edwards contributed 13 in the winning effort. The Chanticleers turned 14 Eagle turnovers into 21 points, while committing only eight errors.
Georgia Southern allowed Coastal Carolina to shoot 50.9 percent from the floor and 47.1 percent from three-point range. Coastal Carolina went to the line 26 times for 14 points off 28 GS personal fouls while the Eagles had only 10 attempts at the free throw line, converting seven. CCU was whistled for only 12 fouls, five in the first half.
Coastal Carolina jumped out of the gate strong, taking an early 12-4 lead with three treys, but the Eagles were hard pressed, chipping away at the deficit. GS used a three-point basket from Wohlleb to come within one point, 12-11 and tied the game at 12-all with a free throw by Cameron Baskerville (Marietta, Ga.). A 9-0 response from the Chanticleers widened the home court advantage back to 21-12 with 9:20 remaining. The Eagles would cut the lead to seven, the closest they would come in the first half before Coastal Carolina went to the locker room carrying a double-digit lead at 35-25.
Georgia Southern (3-11, 0-2 SoCon) will enter the new year playing Auburn at 2 p.m. Eastern time at Beard-Eaves Memorial Colesium on Saturday, January 2nd. The Eagles will then finally return home to play host to Chattanooga on Wednesday, January 6th at 7 p.m.
