Greensboro College Men’s Basketball Hangs Tough in 85-65 Setback at Division I Coastal Carolina

(CONWAY, S.C.) — The Pride men’s basketball team gave Division I Coastal Carolina all that it could handle in a road defeat on Sunday night. Greensboro trailed at the half 38-33 but ran out of gas late in a 85-65 setback. This came 11 days after the Chanticleers hammered ACC foe Clemson 69-46.
The Pride went toe-to-toe with the Chanticleers in the first half, forcing five ties and ten lead changes in the opening frame.

Damian Dixon gave Greensboro an early 3-2 lead with a trey in the opening minute. After falling behind 13-7, Tracy Jester and Luqman Tijani hammered home threes to give The Pride a 13-12 advantage at the 15:08 mark.

Coastal Carolina answered with a 4-0 run before Tijani knocked down another three pointer to knot the score at 16-16 with 14:02 left. Neither team found the bottom of the net again until Anthony Raffa converted a fastbreak layup to put the Chanticleers back on top 18-16 with 11:37 to play.

Greensboro responded again as a Brian Thomas jumper evened the score at 18-18. Coastal Carolina ran off the next five points to grab the lead at 23-18 with 9:09 showing on the first half clock.

The Pride continued to fight back with back-to-back threes by Thomas and Jester to regain the lead at 24-23 with 7:57 to go. Play went back-and-forth from there until the Chanticleers went on a 7-0 run to go ahead 38-31.

Greensboro got the last points of the half on a last second layup by Abdias Sauver to cut the deficit to 38-33 at the break.

The Pride attempted 20 first half three-pointers, making seven. Tijani led Greensboro into the locker room with 13 points.

The teams again traded buckets to open the second half, with Tijani netting his fourth three of the game to trim the margin to 48-43. Following a Coastal Carolina trey on the other end, Dixon made two free throws to pull Greensboro within 51-45.

The Pride pushed the momentum in their favor on their next offensive possesion, as Thomas found Jester for an alley oop dunk to bring the score to 51-47. Tijani again scored from beyond the arc to trim the gap to 53-50 with 13:21 left.

The Chanticleers kept the pressure on with a 7-0 run to take a 60-50 lead at the 11:58 point. A long range bucket by Donald Anderson stopped the spurt and brought Greensboro back to within 60-53 with under ten minutes to play.

However, a free throw, fastbreak layup and three by Raffa again pushed the Coastal Carolina into double digits at 66-53. The Chanticleers took control from there and pulled away from The Pride for the win.

Tijani paced the Greensboro attack with 22 points on 8-11 shooting, including 6-9 from three point territory. Jester added 12 points while Thomas finished with 11.

The Pride shot 36.8% from the field and 32.4% from beyond the arc. Coastal Carolina held a 42-32 advantage on the boards.

With the defeat, Greensboro falls to 5-4 on the season. The Pride will look to rebound on January 2 at home against North Carolina Wesleyan. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m.