The Coastal Carolina University men's basketball season came to an end with an 86-69 loss to Arkansas State Tuesday night in the first round of the 2023 Hercules Tires Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Championship, played at the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola, Fla.

Led by Antonio Daye and Josh Uduje, the Chants jumped out to a 15-8 lead just four minutes into the game before the Red Wolves begin knocking down three-point field goals, making five three's in a 17-0 run that pushed the Red Wolves into the lead for good.

Daye finished the game with 24 points, marking his fourth 20-point game in the Chants' last five games. Essam Mostafa did not start but did see his first action in five games. The redshirt junior picked up a double-double with 13 points and a team-high 12 rebounds. It was his 16th double-double of the season and the 37th of his career.

Jomaru Brown also reached double digits with his 12-point effort, while Uduje finished with nine points.

CCU (11-20) shot 41.7 percent (25-of-60) from the field and only hit six of their 15 three-point attempts (40.0 percent). CCU entered the game having hit 40 consecutive free throws over the past three games and pushed that to 43 consecutive makes until a missed free throw midway through the first half ended the run. The Chants did hit 13-of-16 free throws (81.3 percent) to end the season making 53-of-56 free throws over their final four games.

The Red Wolves (13-19) shot 52.8 percent (28-of-53) from the field, including knocking down 14-of-25 three-point field goals for 56.0 percent. A-State also made 16-of-23 free throws for 69.6 percent.

Arkansas State had four players reach double digits, led by Terrance Ford's game-high 25 points. Markise Davis came off the bench to score 20 points.

Omar El-Sheikh finished the game with a double-double in scoring 13 points and grabbing a game-high 15 rebounds. Avery Fields scored 12 points on four made three-point field goals.