Don't know if you've heard the news, but SportSouth is running eight regular season Big South games (6 men's, 2 women's) this year, plus the semi-finals and final of the Advance Auto Parts Big South Conference Women's Basketball Championship from Asheville, NC (March 14-16).
The first of those SportSouth games ran Saturday night from High Point, where the Panthers hosted the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. The game was a good choice--HPU was selected as the preseason favorite to win the Conference, and each team had an All-Conference selection on the court: Arizona Reid for HPU and Jack Leasure for CCU. Matt Hogue, a familiar voice for folks throughout the Big South, handled play-by-play duties, and wound up with a gem of a game.
Early on, scoring came slowly, but the pace picked up and Coastal was the beneficiary of the tempo for a good while. The Chants expanded their advantage to as many as 20 points, but the home team fed off the crowd's energy and surged back with second-half runs of 14 and 10 unanswered points. The furious comeback surges brought the Panthers within two by the time the game approached the final minute of play! In the end, CCU hung on and grabbed the victory (CCU 66, HPU 61), but anyone who might have thought the game was settled before the very end would have missed out on the kind of dynamic play that makes the sport so exciting every night. Bravo to Reid (25 points, 12 rebounds) and Leasure (33 points--including eight 3-pointers) for coming up big for their teams in front of the large SportSouth audience.
In addition to the SportSouth coverage, there are other Big South games out there for regional cable/satellite viewers on MASN, with five games (4 men's, 1 women's) overall this season (two already played). Then when it's tournament time, look for action on the men's side with games on the ESPN family of networks.
Meanwhile, the games continue on The Big South EDGE, so check that out and get the Big South wherever you go!
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