Coastal drops game against Southern, rebounds with win over Georgia State

On Thursday, Feb 21, the Georgia State Hawks defeated the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers by a final score of 79-74 in what was a back-and-forth game for most of the contest.

Zac Cuthbertson scored a game-high 21 points for the Chanticleers, with guard Devante Jones right behind him with 20 points for the night. The next highest-scoring Chanticleers were Amidou Bamba and Ebrima Dibba, who both dropped 9 points on the night.

For the Eagles, Tookie Brown led the team with 17 points, while Montae Glenn (16), Quan Jackson (15), Simeon Carter (13), and David-Lee Jones jr (12) all reached double figures.

Georgia Southern outshot Coastal Carolina for the game, 47.2 percent to 43.5 percent. Coastal did shoot better from three-point range 32 percent to 28.6 percent. However, Southern outshot CCU from three 42.9 percent to 26.7 percent in the second half) and from the free throw line (85.7 percent to 83.3 percent).

Coastal Carolina took a 34-30 lead into halftime, but the defense collapsed in the second half as they let Georgia State outscore them 49-40 in the second half.

The trouble for CCU came on the mental side of the ball, as they committed a whopping 27 fouls and turned the ball over 16 times, which resulted in 17 Georgia State points.

On Saturday, Feb. 23, the Chanticleers opened their game against conference leaders Georgia state in one of the fastest starts of the season propelled Coastal Carolina to a 95-82 victory over the Panthers as the Chanticleers snapped their four-game losing streak.

Thanks to a first half in which they shot 54 percent from the field, CCU took a 58-33 lead into halftime and never really looked back. Georgia State was able to shrink the lead to 9 in the second half, but Coastal Carolina’s damage control reached peak form en route to the 7 point victory.

Tyrell Gumbs-Frater continued to be a spark for CCU as he came off the bench to score 29 points thanks to 9-19 shooting from three point range. Zac Cuthbertson and Tommy burton added 15 points apiece, and Ajay Sanders dropped 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to pick up his second double-double of the season.

Georgia State was led in scoring by junior D’Marcus Simonds who dropped 31 points. Guard Damon Wilson joined Simonds in double figures as he added 18 points of his own.

Coastal shot better than Georgia State from three point range (35.9 percent to 28.6 percent), from the free throw line (70.4 percent to 69.2 percent) and overall (44.3 percent to 42.4 percent). Coastal Carolina also dominated on the glass as they outrebounded Georgia State 53-34.

Coastal Carolina will travel to Louisiana to face off against the Rajin Cajuns on Thursday, Feb 28. Tipoff is at 8p.m. ET.