Chanticleers rally back to top Hounds in CBI

Chuck Champion ended his freshman season with a career-high 18 points.

Freshman guard Chuck Champion a season-high 18 points and the Loyola Greyhounds men’s basketball team knocked down eight 3-pointers, but their season was ended as the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers ended the game on a 14-4 run to claim the 72-63 victory in at the HTC Center in Conway, South Carolina in the College Basketball Invitational quarterfinals.

Both Champion and junior point guard Andrew Walker hit four 3-pointers and had Loyola ahead 59-57 with four minutes left in the game, but the Chanticleers’ defense held the Greyhounds to just 2-for-11 shooting down the stretch.

Loyola got off to a remarkable start to the game. They scored the first 13 points of the game and got early 3-pointers from both Champion and James Fives in that early run. Coastal Carolina finally got on the board in the fifth minute of the game when Jaylen Shaw got in the paint for a jumper, but Champion immediately responded with another 3-pointer and one by Walker with 12:02 remaining in the first quarter gave Loyola an 18-2 lead.

After that, the Chanticleers changed up their lineup by making three substitutions and that appeared to be a spark. Coastal Carolina started cutting into the bit Loyola lead when Elijah Wilson earned and completed a three-point play with 10:41 and then followed with another jumper.

Cam Gregor had a three-point play of his own, but the Chanticleers held Loyola scoreless for just under five minutes after that.

Coastal Carolina struggled to score in that span as well, and only got within 10 points before Champion tipped in a missed 3-pointer by Andre Kostecka to end the drought, but after that make the Chanticleers scored eight points in a row to make it a four-point game. Shaw hit another 3-pointer in that stretch and a three-point play by Demario Beck capped off the run.

Loyola responded with a Chancellor Bernard 3-pointer and a three-point play by Gregory got Loyola back up by 10 points, but another eight-point run by Coastal Carolina got the Chanticleers within two points.

The two teams exchanged points in the final 25 seconds before Loyola took a 31-29 lead into halftime.

Coastal Carolina clearly had the momentum heading into the break and scored the first seven points of the second half to take a 36-31 lead with two and a half minutes in. But the Greyhounds didn’t let Coastal Carolina take over.

The most Coastal Carolina led by were those five points before a five-point run gave the Greyhounds the lead back just before the midway point of the half. But Loyola couldn’t take over either. The closely contested second half saw several shot exchanges and multiple responding spurts until the Chanticleers pulled away at the end of the game.

Loyola’s 3-pointers kept them alive while the Chanticleers outshot them 47.1-percent to 32.4-percent from the floor in the second half. Ultimately, though, the 44-18 points in the paint disparity, what was 28-8 in the second half, was too much for Loyola to overcome.

Walker was second on the Greyhounds with 12 points while Bernard scored 10. Both Jarred Jones and Gregory has eight points and nine rebounds in the game. Jones led Loyola with four assists and matched Champion’s three steals while Gregory led with three blocks.

Shaw led Coastal Carolina with 22 points on 10-for-19 shooting. Wilson and Beck had 16 and 15 points respectively. Artur Labinowicz scored 12 points.

For the game, Loyola was outshot 44.4-percent to 33.9-percent and was outrebounded 45-38.

Loyola ends their season with a 16-17 record for a seven-game improvement over last season. The 16 wins are the most for Loyola under GG Smith and since the Greyhounds joined the Patriot League.

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Corey Johns

Editor in Chief

You could say Corey was born to become a sports journalist. His father won a national championship coaching college soccer. His mother is a baseball fanatic who hasn't missed seeing an Orioles game since 1983 (literally, sometimes it's annoying). His great uncle was a big-time boxing promoter and his maternal grandfather was once a department head at the Baltimore Sun. Basically, sports and journalism run through his blood. He played just about every little league sports there was when he was a kid and was a multi-sport athlete in high school; even playing in the first-ever high school sanction Rugby game in the country. Eventually he retired from sports as an undefeated Maryland state Rugby champion as a high school senior. Perhaps lack of athletic talent has more to do with the retirement, but he will tell you that it more had to do with a great desire to jump right into media. Upon his graduation from University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a triple communications major, Corey started the So Much Sports network and has continued to grow his websites and continues to work to make them premier sports media outlets.

Latest posts by Corey Johns (see all)

• So long and thank you from So Much Sports - August 7, 2017
• Os stand pat, pressure is now on this offseason - July 31, 2017
• John Urschel retires from NFL - July 27, 2017