Home again in SC, Joshua Beadle stays clutch for Coastal Carolina

Coastal Carolina’s Joshua Beadle dribbled the basketball, dribbled some more, and then moved to his left before launching a jumper near the foul line here on Friday night against host James Madison University.

The shot by the lefty from Cardinal Newman High in front of a boisterous home crowd of 4,042 found the bottom of the net with just 0.9 seconds left on the clock as Coastal downed the Dukes 69-68 in the regular-season finale for the Sun Belt Conference opponents.

“Originally the play was to get a high ball screen and attack off that,” said Beadle, standing outside the boisterous Coastal dressing room after the win. “But they double-teamed. I got the switch I wanted off the big man and I made the play off that.

“I did want to get to the basket, but (the defender) kind of played it pretty well,” Beadle added. “I was able to create a little space.”

Hitting game-winning shots in the closing seconds is nothing new for Beadle, who returned to his home state of South Carolina to finish his college career.

The Columbia product knocked down a game-winner with about two seconds left as Coastal beat UMass in three overtimes on Feb. 7 in Conway. And his 3-pointer with two seconds left in November 2024 downed Boise State when he played for Boston College. Beadle began his college career at Clemson and played three seasons for the Tigers.

Against JMU, the Sun Belt preseason favorite, Coastal gained possession with less than 14 seconds left after a review ruled that the ball was off the home team under the Dukes’ basket.

“I told him, I don’t care when you shoot it. I just want you to make it,” Coastal head coach Justin Gray said.

JMU missed a shot at the buzzer that would have won the game, while Beadle ended up with a game-high 29 points. Being able to come home has been key for Beadle, who is averaging a team-high 17.5 points per game for Coastal.

“Definitely special. My mom has been able to watch every home game. This being my last year, that has been special,” he said of playing about 2.5 hours from home. His mother, Kristi, was one of the few Coastal fans on hand Friday night in the Shenandoah Valley.

JOSHUA BEADLE PRO POTENTIAL

The No. 3 seed Chanticleers (19-12, 11-7) will play this Saturday against either South Alabama or the winner of game six in the Sun Belt Conference tournament in Pensacola, Florida, and the champion of the event gains an automatic bid to March Madness.

No matter the outcome in a wide-open field, Gray believes Beadle will be playing hoops somewhere after this season. Gray, as an assistant at Winthrop, recruited Beadle as a high school player and is now fielding inquiries about the guard about a pro career.

“He is a European professional athlete, 1,000 percent. I have a lot of overseas connections,” said Gray, who played in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Poland, Greece, Ukraine, China, Germany, France, Turkey, Lebanon, Bulgaria, Romania and Belarus. “He has elite speed, and he is a hard worker. The results are a testament to that. Most important is that he is a good teammate. To go to Europe, you have to be around good people.”

Among Beadle’s former Clemson teammates who have played overseas this season are Joseph Girard III in Slovenia and Brevin Galloway in China.

Beadle was teammates at Cardinal Newman with Chico Carter Jr., who played in college at Murray State and South Carolina and has performed this season in Poland after earlier stops in Hungary and Montenegro, according to eurobasket.com.

“I definitely want to go pro. Whatever opportunity presents itself,” said Beadle, when asked about a possible destination.

Coastal was coming off a win Feb. 24 against Georgia State in which the 6-foot-3, 180-pound Beadle made just one of 10 shots from the field.

“It is the game of basketball. You cannot make good (plays) every game,” he said. “No game is perfect” as a playmaking guard.

“Probably the best guard I’ve seen at JMU (games) this year,” noted Kirby Dean, a former Division I assistant at VMI who is a color commentator for ESPN+ games, of Beadle. “If he was just a tad bigger, he’d have a nice NBA career.”

REDEMPTION AT JMU

Beadle had 31 points earlier this season at home against JMU, but he missed two free throws in the closing seconds in the loss.

“Obviously, we lost last game (to JMU). That was important for us (Friday), the way we lost (last time). The momentum we get out of this game going into the tourney is the biggest part,” Beadle said.

Beadle averaged 5.9 points per game during the 2024-25 season. He began his college career at Clemson and was a key reserve on the Elite Eight team in 2024.

“That was a huge part for us in our program,” Gray said of Beadle transferring to Coastal. “There is a ton of talent that leaves the state. I think he will lead the pathway for other guys” to stay in South Carolina.

Beadle graduated in three years at Clemson with a degree in parks, recreation and tourism management and then got his master’s at BC in sports administration. But he has an eye on real estate once he hangs up his sneakers.

“It is a big market. It is something I have been interested in,” he said.

But first, perhaps Europe beckons — after the postseason run by Coastal.

—— David Driver is the former sports editor of the Daily News-Record in his native Harrisonburg and is the author of “Hoop Dreams in Europe: Americans Building Pro Basketball Careers Overseas,” available at Amazon and at daytondavid.com. ——