A-State Men’s Basketball Knocks Off Coastal Carolina, Advances to SBC Tournament’s Second Round

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The Arkansas State men’s basketball team had four players score in double figures, including freshman guard Terrance Ford Jr. with a game-high 25 points, and made a season-best 14 three pointers as it defeated Coastal Carolina 86-69 Tuesday in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at the Pensacola Bay Center.

The tournament’s No. 13 seed, A-State (13-19) collected its third win over the last four games behind the strength of its most three pointers since also knocking down 14 against UT Martin in 2016.  Five different players hit at least one shot from behind the arc to help the Red Wolves advance to a second-round matchup against No. 5 Troy on Thursday, March 2, at 2:00 p.m.

Ford tied his season-high points total with a 7-of-10 shooting performance, which included four field goals from the perimeter.  Senior forward Markise Davis also hit four shots from long distance and finished with a season-high 20 points to go along with six rebounds and two steals.

Forward Omar El-Sheikh led A-State on the boards with a season-tying 15 rebounds, while also adding 13 points to collect his 11th double-double of the season.  Sophomore guard Avery Felts added 12 points for the Red Wolves and joined Ford and Davis as one of three players to make four three pointers.

Winning its third game over the last four outings and its initial contest at the Sun Belt Conference Championships for the third straight year, A-State posted a .528 field goal percentage.  Led by Ford with a team-high five assists, A-State finished with 19 total as a team for its most this season against a Division I opponent.

No. 12 Coastal Carolina (11-20) shot 47 percent from the field, and both teams hauled down 33 rebounds, but Arkansas State committed just eight turnovers – two less than the Chanticleers.

Coastal Carolina jumped out to a seven-point lead on two different occasions within the game’s first five minutes, but Arkansas State responded with a 17-0 first-half run to take a 29-18 advantage with 7:23 remaining.  While A-State would push the margin to 14 at 34-20, the Chanticleers closed the half on a 10-0 run to cut its deficit to just four points at the break.

Carrying the momentum over into the start of the second half, Coastal Carolina scored the first three points to make the score 34-33.  Still leading by just one, 54-53, at the 9:54 mark, the Red Wolves outscored the Chanticleers 17-8 over the next six minutes to open up their first double-digit lead of the second half.

The stretch began with back-to-back buckets by forward Julian Lual and ended with a pair of big three-point buckets by Felts on consecutive possessions.  Coastal Carolina wouldn’t get closer than eight points the rest of the way.

A-State senior guard Caleb Fields also ended the night with five points, running his career total to 1,181 to pass Ed Townsel (2010-14) for the 18th most in school history.  Coastal Carolina was led by three players scoring in double figures, including senior guard Antonio Daye with a team-high 24 points.

The Red Wolves second-round game Thursday against Troy will appear on ESPN+