Coastal Carolina’s Defense Leads Chanticleers to First Win

Coastal Carolina’s defensive capabilities were on full display Monday night, as the Chanticleers got into the win column for the first time this season, defeating USC Upstate 65-56 in Conway.

The Chanticleers held Upstate to 30% shooting from the field, 23.1% from beyond the arc and under a 40% true shooting percentage. Despite continuing to struggle from three-point range, Coastal was able to secure its first win of the 2026-27 college basketball season.

To begin the game, both teams struggled offensively, with neither team scoring for nearly the first four minutes until Amont’e Allen-Johnson hit a three for the Spartans. Both teams picked up the pace offensively heading into the under-12 media timeout, but Coastal Carolina head coach Justin Gray was not pleased with his team’s effort, breaking a clipboard and yelling for much of the timeout.

After the timeout, Coastal’s play improved, as the Chanticleers quickly jumped out to a six-point lead. Then, after Trey Perry picked up his second foul, freshman Q Williams IV entered the game, seemingly giving the Chants some much-needed energy and life.

“Q is Q, like a nat at a barbeque,” said Gray. “He’s annoying at times out there, but he’s able to make plays, get out and see people, make plays for him and others.”

After taking a 29-25 lead into halftime, Coastal came out firing offensively in the second half. After having to sit for nearly the final nine minutes of the first half, Perry hit an immediate three to start the second half and scored 14 of the Chants’ first 19 points after the break.

Coastal’s biggest change in the second half came on the defensive side of the ball. Gray typically switches to a zone defense coming out of a timeout in many games, but Coastal ran that zone much more than it usually does.

“The zone was something that we knew we could run,” Gray said. “Just to keep them off balance. They have to run something different. There were two or three possessions there where we got three stops in a row.”

The Chants never looked back in the second half. Despite the Spartans cutting the lead to three, Coastal immediately went on a run to push its advantage to 14 points before finally securing the 65-56 victory.

Chants WIN 👌 pic.twitter.com/ddI47coP1k

— Coastal Men's Basketball (@CoastalMBB) November 10, 2026

Perry led the Chants in scoring, as he has in all three games this season, finishing with 18 points and three rebounds. He shot 7-for-14 from the field and 2-for-4 from deep. In his first career start at the Division I level, Drew Fuquay contributed nine points and seven rebounds. Off the bench, Darius Washington III added 14 points, five rebounds and three steals.

Coastal was able to dominate in the paint, outscoring the Spartans 38-18. A big part of that was Washington, who scored 10 of his points at the rim.

“I saw the didn’t really have any big guards. So i just took advantage of my size, and got down hill and played of two [feet],” Washington said postgame.

Ball movement was also something that stood out for the Chants in a negative fashion through the first few games, but Coastal was able to win the assist battle 12-3. Turnovers were relatively even between the two teams, with USC Upstate committing just one fewer than Coastal.

USC Upstate was led by David Tubek, who finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds while shooting 10-for-18 from the field. Allen-Johnson was the only other Spartan to reach double figures, scoring 11 points.

With the victory, the Chanticleers improve to 1-2 on the season and will return to action Nov. 13 at home against Virginia University of Lynchburg. The Chants defeated the Dragons last season 121-44. USC Upstate falls to 0-3 and will search for its first win Nov. 11 against Bob Jones University.