Coastal Carolina blew away Winthrop 81-70 with a huge second-half surge to seize the Big South Tournament title, earning their second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Coastal Carolina wins 2015 Big South basketball tournament
The Chanticleers are going dancing for the second straight year.
Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports
It’s the first time the Chanticleers have gone to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments. It’s also the second straight year their celebration has come at the expense of the Eagles -- they beat Winthrop 76-61 in last year’s final. aWrren Gillis led the way with 22 points, and Coastal Carolina held Winthrop to just 37 percent shooting.
The two teams were even for 20 minutes, with a wild banked 30-foot three by Winthrop’s Andre Smith knotting the score at 38. But Coastal Carolina pulled away in the second half, scoring the first seven points to start a lead that ballooned as big as 16.
Coastal Carolina was in their run to the tourney by a bloodbath of a tournament: the 1, 2, and 4 seeds were knocked out in the quarterfinals, leaving the No. 3-seeded Chanticleers as the top-seeded team still alive in the semifinals. To be fair, the league was very tight -- at one time, the top seven teams were in a tie for first.
Further helping the Chants was home court advantage: For the third straight year, Coastal Carolina hosted the tournament in their home arena, the HTC Center in Conway, SC. So for most teams, the games were held at a neutral site, but the Chanticleers got to play in front of a roaring fanbase. They even stormed the court after the final buzzer. It’s not like they were gifted the tournament, but in a one-bid league with so much parity, it was a huge help.
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