The Wolfpack used a 12-1 run at the end of the first half to seize control of a close game.
But the Chanticleers gave the bigger, stronger Wolfpack of the ACC a stern challenge. Coastal led by as many as five points in the first half and trailed by just seven with five minutes left before the half.
N.C. State then used its run to open a 19-point lead, a cushion which it would need as the Chanticleers played the Wolfpack nearly even in the second half.
The Wolfpack held just a 39-33 scoring advantage in the second half.
Three Chanticleers registered double figure games, including Brisbane guard Nigel Berghan who scored 11 points. Berghan also led Coastal Carolina with five rebounds.
Melbourne, AUSTRALIA (Nov 30) - Melbourne Tigers (9-0) proved they can win without centre Mark Bradtke to remain on top of the NBL ladder following their 102-97 victory over Sydney Kings over the weekend.
Bradtke, the Australian Boomer and former Philadelphia 76ers centre, may be injured, but Melbourne still lead the league in five key statistical categories - scoring (105 points a game), field goal percentage (49 per cent), rebounding (44), assists (23) and blocked shots (six).
Andrew Gaze scored a round-high 40 points against the Kings, while imports Lanard Copeland and Marcus Timmons hit 21 each, reports The Australian.
Back-up centre Blair Smith (14 points and 10 rebounds) covered for Bradtke's absence. It was only a win against the Kings, who are in last place with a 1-6 record, but still it was a win.
Another former NBA centre, Acie Earl, led Sydney's scoring (25 points) and rebounding (11 boards) in his NBL debut.
The 211cm Earl should be able to dominate in the NBL because of his sheer size, but the big man is clearly unfit.
A tiring Earl scored only three points in the last quarter. Yet, the Kings extended him with 43min 54sec court-time.
If Earl can gain match fitness the Kings will be a force, but much depends on how long it takes him to get into shape. And he has not got long.
The Kings must win at least 13 of their last 23 games to make the playoffs.
Click here for all the weekend NBL Scores and Ladder.
North Carolina, USA (Nov 30) - Despite big contributions from Australia's Brett Smith and David Patrick, Southwestern Lousiana University slumped to 0-2 with a loss to East Carolina this week.
Smith poured in 11 points (including 2-2from the field and 7-8 free throws) and grabbed a team high 6 rebounds, while Patrick scored 9 points for Southwestern Louisiana.
East Carolina (2-1) overcame an early deficit to win 75-69, wiping out beat Southwestern Louisiana's 35-26 halftime lead.
The scores were locked at 58-58 with 6:56 to play. The crowd was 2,328.
Hobart, AUSTRALIA (Nov 30) - Hobart Chargers have won two consecutive conference titles in the Continental Basketball Association, and have now signed former Sydney Kings centre Brad Williams hoping to lift a national championship.
Williams comes to the Chargers from the Sydney Kings, having played over 100 NBL games, he will add height and experience to the CBA side.
With Darren Smith and Mark Nash leaving the Club recently to pursue NBL contracts, Williams fills the void well, and will surely be under the spotlight in Tasmania, with many NBL coaches watching to see how he performs.
In his time in the CBA last season he was averaged around 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. At 201 cm, Williams brings height, experience and athletiscm to the side.
Hobart have won the CBA's South Conference title in 1997-98, but failed to fulfil early promise to fall short of the CBA cational championship on each occassion.
The CBA season runs March-September.
Sydney, AUSTRALIA (Nov 30) - Australia's Peta Wilson came home to Australia this week as La Femme Nikita premiered on Australian television. She's a reputed former Opal, but nobody's heard of her.
She's the heart-throb star of La Femme Nikita - an action packed series now sweeping the television world - whose biography promotes her as "the youngest woman and best player on the Australian national basketball team".
Peta who? In an earlier world-exclusive, Australian Hoops revealed that Basketball Australia has no record of her: "... we don't have any record of Peta Wilson representing Australia," replied Colette Steer, the international co-ordinator for Basketball Australia, when asked about the La Femme Nikita star. Basketball New South Wales didn't even respond.
But Australian Hoops was getting inquiries from around the world, wanting to know more of the former model now TV star, and we've never heard of her either.
"I read in a magazine that La Femme Nikita TV star Peta Wilson is a former Australian Basketball star... could you email me some pictures of Peta playing basketball?" asked Santanu Gupta, the first of the world-wide fans thirsting for information.
Peta Wilson, 5'10", is a 26-year-old Sydney-born actress, daughter of a retired warrant officer, Darcy Wilson, and a caterer, Karlene White (they also have a son, Rob, 25, an Australian army truck driver).
So still, if there's any readers out there who can shed light on her basketball career, please let Australian Hoops know.
"She is a champion sailor, and with her father and brother she has received the title of Australian Champion Sailors," her official television biography alledges.
"She was also the youngest woman and best player on the Australian national basketball team."
"She became a model in Europe, but she grew tired of being judged by how she looked and was suffering from bouts of anorexia and bulimia, so she packed up and moved to Los Angeles in 1991."
The story line of La Femme Nikita is equally "impressive":
Taken away from the troubled streets where she was living, Nikita is quick to recognize that her life as she once knew it is gone forever.
Faced with playing the role of the ruthless killer which her employers think she is, she depends upon her lethal skills and drop-dead looks to achieve her dangerous objectives.
Always supremely confident, spirited and courageous, Nikita finds herself entrenched in situations where her compassion and generosity of spirit come in direct conflict with her work.
In Nikita's now-murky world, she may not always make the right choice, but she tries to - even though she understands that having a conscience can be a fatal flaw.
So please, please, email Australian Hoops with news of the REAL Peta Wilson so we can know more about her "drop-dead looks" and "fatal flaws"!
Connecticut, USA (Nov 30) - Australia's Nick Mirich and George Mason University advanced the championship game of the NCAA Division I AT&T Shootout in Connecticut last week.
Mirich then scored 1 point for George Mason (1-3) as they narrowly lost the tournament decider 93-91 to Fairfield University (2-1), in front of a crowd of 2,179.
The Fairfield Stags held a double-digit lead in the second, including a 78-67 advantage following a three-pointer with eight minutes remaining.
George Mason cut into that lead with an 8-0 run, making the score 78-75.
George Mason pulled to within one point in the final seconds after a three-pointer, but Fairfield made one of two free throws to make the score 93-91 with five seconds on the clock.
George Mason reached the championship game of the AT&T Shootout Tournament by beating the University of Portland 74-72.
Meanwhile, George Mason slumped o 1-4 with a loss to Toledo University 60-59 this week.
The Rockets (3-0) were playing their first Division I opponent after opening the season with easy wins over Division II foes.
George Mason, trailing 28-25 at the half, cut Toledo's lead to within two points seven times in the second half, but the Partiots couldn't catch the Rockets. The crowd in Fairfax, Virginia, was 1,727.
Nevada, USA (Nov 30) - The Burdekin Wildcats' Phil Rodman has lost a sister-in-law.
Basketball bad boy Dennis Rodman (half brother of Australian-based Phil, and one of 27 siblings fathered by Phil Rodman senior) filed annulment papers last week to end his nine-day marriage to television actress and ex-Playboy model Carmen Electra.
"Carmen and Dennis spoke several days ago and mutually agreed (to end the marriage)," said Electra's publicist, Cindy Guagengi, reports Associated Press.
The couple married Nov. 14 in Las Vegas, but Rodman's agent, Dwight Manley, immediately expressed misgivings.
"Obviously, anyone that would marry somebody that was intoxicated to the point that they couldn't speak or stand had ulterior motives of some sort," Manley said two days after the wedding.
Electra, left "Baywatch" this month for another beach show, "Hyperion Bay."
Honolulu, USA (Nov 23) - Australia's Suzi Raymant led all scorers as No. 17 Kansas University rallied to beat Minnesota 62-53 in overtime at the Hawaiian Regent Classic in NCAA womens college basketball, over the weekend.
Kansas (2-1) opened the overtime period with seven unanswered points including a basket Melbourne guard Raymant, reports Associated Press.
Raymant finished with 12 points, five rebounds and three assists.
The Golden Gophers (2-1) led until Kansas took a 49-48 lead with 43 seconds left in regulation on a jumper. Minnesota hit a 3-pointer with two seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 51 and send it to overtime.
Sydney, AUSTRALIA (Nov 23) - The latest in the long list of Sydney Kings imports, Acie Earl, claims he got a bad rap in the National Basketball Association, reports The Australian.
A first-round draft choice by Boston in 1993, 211-centimetre Earl should be at the peak of his career in the NBA. Instead, he is suiting up with Sydney in the National Basketball League.
Earl, 28, spent four seasons in the NBA with the Celtics, Toronto and Milwaukee, averaging five points and three rebounds.
"I kind of sat back and let the general managers and coaches make decisions," Earl told The Australian.
"A lot of general managers and coaches have taken that wrongly for nonchalance or lack of care. They think I don't care if I play or not, which is quite far from the case."
"I've been on a basketball odyssey," he said. "The CBA and overseas: I've been to Greece twice, Germany, Spain, China and France."
"In the NBA, you sign a contract and they pay you. Unfortunately, overseas it doesn't work out like that."
"This year, I signed a contract in Greece and they reneged on the deal. I went over to China and they reneged on the deal. Fortunately, the Paris thing worked out great."
Earl, who is married with two daughters, has been accompanied to Sydney by his younger brother, Brent, who is pursuing contracts for their recording label.
Earl, who is replacing sacked import Alonzo Goldston, rejected an offer to play in Argentina to join the disappointing Kings.
"The big thing was to make sure I went somewhere everything was straight," he said. "No monkey business."
The Kings are in second-last position on the NBL table with a 1-5 win-loss record and are looking to Earl to rescue their season.
Earl, who has not played for six months, will make his NBL debut when the Kings play Melbourne at Melbourne Park on Friday night.
See all the NBL Scores and Ladder from the weekend.
Melbourne, AUSTRALIA (Nov 23) - Although Bulleen Boomers lost to the Australian Institute of Sport in the Womens National Basketball League over the weekend, there were signs they're a team capable of going deep into the playoffs.
The Boomers didn't have injured centre Tanya Haave to cope with AIS standout Lauren Jackson (pictured), and the WNBA's Michele Timms had her best game of the season, reports the Herald Sun.
AIS took advantage of Haave's absence as Jackson poured in 30 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, while Penny Taylor had 14 points and nine rebounds and guard Kristen Veal had 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Timms stepped up to hit 21 points, while Allison Cook nailed 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the Boomers lost for the fourth time in five games.
"Really, I thought we played a great game and we did what we needed to do," Boomers coach Chizik said.
The AIS students also beat the Sydney Flames behind Jackson's 19 points on the weekend and are top of the ladder.
Next up for the Boomers is defending champion Adelaide Lightning, and yet another test to see if the youngsters are for real.
See all the WNBL Scores and Ladder from the weekend.
South Carolina, USA (Nov 21) - Australia's Nigel Berghan is expected to start for Coastal Carolina University when they take on North Carolina State this weekend.
Berghan, a 6-3 senior from Brisbane, had 2 points 2 rebounds at guard for Coastal Carolina in their season opening win. Coastal Carolina (1-0) and North Carolina State (2-0) are both undefeated.
The game is the third meeting between the Chanticleers and the North Carolina State Wolfpack and all of the meetings have been in South Carolina.
N.C. State defeated Coastal Carolina 97-69 in the first meeting during the 1988-89 season, and then downed the Chants 86-78 during the 1990-91 season.
This will be the 11th game that the Chanticleers have played against a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
In the previous 10 games, Coastal Carolina has a 1-9 record. The lone victory came against Wake Forest when the Chants earned a 106-104 victory during the 1987-88 season.
In addition to the Wolfpack, the Chanticleers will also face ACC member Wake Forest this season.
West Lafayette, USA (Nov 21) - Australia's Axel Dench continues to lead Gonzaga University as they powered as far as the second round of the National Invitational Tournament this week.
Dench scored 10 points - his second consecutive double-figure outburst - as Gonzaga defeated Memphis 88-73 in front of 7,762 fans in the opening round of the NIT.
Memphis cut the lead to 4 points, 63-59 in the second half, but the Bulldogs hit 10-of 13 free throws in the final 1:41 to hold the double-digit lead. Dench shot 3-10 from the field and 3-4 free throws.
In their NIT second round match-up, travel-weary Gonzaga ran out of steam down the stretch against No. 15 Purdue, as the Boilermakers beat the Bulldogs 83-68 in front of a crowd of 14,123.
Gonzaga, playing its third road game in six nights, scored only four points and made just one basket in the final seven minutes.
The Bulldogs left their home campus in Spokane, Wash. on Thursday, played at Kansas on Friday, then traveled to Memphis for a Monday game before coming to Indiana.
"We're ready to get home," Gonzaga coach Dan Monson told Associated Press. "I think this has been a good experience for our team. This is a long season. I hope we found something to work on. I know Purdue showed us a couple of things."
Purdue (3-0) will play No. 10 North Carolina in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden next week.
Gonzaga's Dench fouled out of the game against Purdue, scoring 9 points at 4-7 from the field and 1-2 free throws.
Villanova, USA (Nov 21) - Australia's Nick Mirich scored for visiting George Mason University as Villanova opened its season with an 86-76 victory this week.
Villanova connected on 12 of its first 18 shots in the second half to take its biggest lead, 68-48, with 9:17 to play, and coasted the rest of the way.
Playing in front of a crowd of 6,500, George Mason fell to 0-2 as Mirich scored 2 points at 1-3 from the field.
Meanwhile in womens basketball this week, Liberty University completed its exhibition season with a 65-55 victory over the Australian tounring junior team, Victoria ITC.
Melbourne, AUSTRALIA (Nov 16) - Right now, the consensus, even this early in the season, is that the Melbourne Tigers (6-0) are the team to beat for the championship.
Privately, the Tigers might be thinking something similar. Publicly, Andrew Gaze is presenting a rather pessimistic case in explaining the Tigers' unbeaten start, reports the Herald Sun.
"Now that we are 6-0, we've got to try and keep focused and not get complacent so we don't squander the advantage we've given ourselves," Gaze said.
While the pessimist in Gaze was to an extent hosing down expectations on the Tigers, there has been evidence to support his claim.
In the past two games, the Tigers have been guilty of losing the plot a little only to catch themselves in time to keep the winning streak alive.
After watching a 25-point lead dwindle well into single figures against the Adelaide 36ers, the Tigers let slip an 18-point buffer in their 107-102 win over the struggling Sydney Kings at the Kingdome also over the weekend. Gaze paced the Tigers with 41 points.
See here for the latest NBL Scores and Ladder.
Meanwhile, C.J. Bruton is poised to accomplish two feats which eluded his father: playing in the National Basketball Association, and playing in the Olympic Games, reports The Australian.
US-born Calvin Bruton senior tried out unsuccessfully with NBA teams Kansas and San Antonio before moving to Australia during 1979 to play for Brisbane Bullets and lead the league in scoring in the first NBL season.
He played for the Boomers in the 1986 world championship in Spain after receiving Australian citizenship, but missed 1988 Olympic selection at the end of his career.
"My grandmother told my father the NBA wasn't meant for him, but it was meant for me," Bruton said in Wollongong. "My father passes that message on to me every day."
One of four Australians selected in the 1997 NBA draft, Bruton was chosen by Vancouver and immediately traded to Portland.
Bruton will try out for a spot on the TrailBlazers roster at rookie camp in Portland next June - assuming the NBA lockout is over.
Washington, USA (Nov 16) - A former team mate of the Cairns Marlins' George Butler, accused of stalking and making threatening phone calls to coach John Thompson, has been arrested for the second time in two weeks.
Kevin Millen, who played for Georgetown from 1991-1995, was arrested and charged with unlawful entry recently, a Washington D.C. police spokesman said, reports Associated Press.
"Due to previous behavior Kevin Millen was banned from Georgetown University's campus," said Bill Shapland, senior sports communications director.
Millen was arrested last week and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after being accused of stalking Thompson.
Court records show Millen has made 37 threatening phone calls to the university's athletic office since January.
Millen averaged 2 points in 121 games, including three starts, for the Hoyas from 1991-95.
In the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons, Millen was a team mate of George Butler at Georgetown.
Butler left Georgetown after two seasons, and joined Cairns in 1997 to lead them to Australia's CBA North Conference title, and the CBA national championship in 1998.
Kansas, USA (Nov 16) - Kansas University (ranked No. 8) awoke in the second half to protect its homecourt winning streak against Gonzaga University and Australia's Axel Dench.
The nation's longest home winning streak is 61 after Kansas survived a poor first half to turn back Gonzaga 80-66.
Gonzaga led throughout the first half, but suddenly went cold and missed five straight field goal attempts as Kansas surged ahead midway through the second half.
Melbourne's Dench was Gonzaga's second highest scorer with 11 points, shooting 4-of-6 from the field. The crowd was 16,300.
South Carolina, USA (Nov 16) - Next up for Queenslander Nigel Berghan and Coastal Carolina University is a trip to Raleigh, North Carolina, to face the North Carolina State Wolfpack.
That's after the NCAA Division I college started the season with an 83-76 victory against St. Andrews College in their season opener over the weekend.
The Chanticleers, who held a 34-29 halftime advantage, moved out to a 10-point lead over the first three minutes of the second half before exploding for a 19-9 run.
St. Andrews, ranked 18th nationally in NCAA Division II, refused to fold in the games final minutes. With the Chanticleers leading 74-56 with 4:58 showing on the clock, the Knights used a 17-5 run to close the gap to just six points at 79-73 with 24 seconds remaining.
Coastal Carolina will now take a week off before traveling to Raleigh, North Carolina, to face the North Carolina State Wolfpack this coming weekend. Burghan is expected to play a big role at guard.
Washington, USA (Nov 16) - George Mason University collapsed in the second half and Sydney's Nick Mirich was restricted to just 1 point.
George Mason lost 71-59 to George Washington University, in the Red Auerbach Classic game, the season-opener for both teams, over the weekend.
Mason trailed, 43-26, with 17:59 left in the game. But the Patriots, who had 30 turnovers, took the lead, 49-46, with 8:55 left.
In front of a crowd of 5,121 Australia's Mirich shot 1-2 from the line for his solitary point.
New York, USA (Nov 16) - "For the Love of the Game" by Michael Jordan
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Colorado, USA (Nov 16) - Explosions usually make a lot of noise, even small ones. And two-time ABL all-star Debbie Black, who starred in both the WNBL and CBA in Australia, certainly is small.
The Colorado Xplosion with Black at point guard, however, quieted the Noise, reports Associated Press.
Black scored 16 points as the Colorado Xplosion (2-3) defeated the Nashville Noise 103-68 in the womens professional American Basketball League over the weekend.
The former Hobart (WNBL) and Launceston (CBA) guard is in her third year with the Xplosion.