CONWAY, S.C. – Aja Blount scored a season-high 31 points and Deaja Richardson added 22 points as Coastal Carolina built a 27-point lead and cruised to a 79-59 win over Georgia State in a Sun Belt Conference game Wednesday night at the HTC Center. The Chanticleers led nearly all the way to improve to 13-15 overall and 8-9 in the league.
Blount, a 5-11 graduate student who went over 1,900 points in her Coastal career, also grabbed 14 rebounds to collect the eighth double-double of the season.
Coastal got additional scoring from five more players, including versatile super senior forward Miriam Recarte, who had eight points. Sophomore point guard Arin Freeman was at the controls for the Chants, with five points and six assists against just two turnovers. Richardson also had six assists to go with four steals, as CCU logged 17 assists in making 29 buckets.
“You could feel the energy out there. We challenged the team to win the first five minutes of every quarter and that is how you stretch your lead,” said Coastal first-year head coach Kevin Pederson. “We wanted to go inside-out.”
Coastal will conclude its regular season schedule with a home game at 6 p.m. ET Friday against Old Dominion. The 2023 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Basketball Championships will be played from Feb. 28-March 6 at the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola, Fla.
