In a game where the lead changed 13 times, the men’s basketball team opened its season with a close win Nov. 6 over its Division III opponent, Piedmont University, 88-86.
With less than 20 seconds remaining, the Chants trailed by one. Graduate student forward Jimmy Nichols connected on a short hook on an assist from Duquesne transfer and senior Kevin Easley Jr.
Junior Jon Sanders hit one of two free throws afterwards to put the Chants up by two, and Piedmont was unable to score in the closing seconds.
Of the 15 rostered Chants, only six are returning members. This is predominantly a new team at Coastal Carolina University, making this first win one of the first times the group has competed together. Part of the reason for the close ending was the lights-out shooting performances of Piedmont’s graduate guard Ryan Jolly and senior guard Noah Reardon, who combined for 52 points.
Scoring for the Chants was much more spread out, with eight players scoring as opposed to Piedmont’s five. Easley Jr. led the team with 20, followed by freshman guard Jacob Meyer with 16 and redshirt junior guard Kylan Blackmon with 13.
Easley Jr. pointed out the chemistry he and his teammates have already begun to develop.
“We got a good group of dudes. We’re all close, we all try to do stuff together. There’s no egos on this team. We had, I think, 16 assists, so that shows how we like playing with each other,” Easley said. “We’re still learning each other’s games since it was our first game, but it was fun. We’re just trying to win games, that’s the overall goal.”
He also emphasized what they needed to work on moving forward.
“We obviously should have rebounded the ball better and they hit a lot of threes on us, which was our fault,” he said.
The win was the first time freshman Evelyn Kitchin got to watch a game at Coastal.
“First time seeing our team, I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised, Kitchin said. “It was really fun to see basketball back because I really enjoy watching basketball so I’m really excited to see this team throughout the season and watch them improve and get better.”
