Brunswick, Ga. – The College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team flirted with an upset of Augusta State Sunday afternoon at Howard Coffin Gym in its home opener. But after trailing the Mariners by eight points late in the second half, the Jaguars came from behind to escape with a 63-57 victory over Coastal Georgia. When asked after the game about the upset bid made by his team, Coastal Georgia head coach Gerald Cox summed it up fairly simply, saying it was a winnable game.
"We played well in spurts and had a chance to win it," the veteran coach said. "We didn't make the critical plays when we had to and when we had the lead. Obviously we don't know how to play with the lead and you have to have the lead before you learn. We really haven't been in that position this year."
The loss was the fifth straight for the Mariners (1-6) who haven't won since defeating William Carey 72-68 in the second game of the season on Nov. 4. The loss also was the second straight for Coastal Georgia against an NCAA Division II team from the Peach Belt Conference. On Tuesday, the Mariners lost 106-59 at Armstrong Atlantic State in Savannah in their first-ever official contest against an NCAA program.
Though the Jaguars (2-1) are an NCAA D-II power, having won the PBC regular-season the last three seasons and reached at least the round of 16 in the national tournament the last four seasons, the Mariners gave Augusta State much more of a challenge than they did Armstrong as they fell behind 24-0 early in the game against the Pirates
"This is a giant stride in the right direction," Cox said. "All of our strides the last two or three times have been backward. We moved better and played a whole lot better defense than we did against Armstrong. We just stood around on both ends against them. We did that some tonight, but not nearly as much and didn't bury ourselves early."
The Mariners trailed Augusta State by as much as 14 points before halftime but were within 29-19 at the break despite shooting just 22 percent from the field in the first half. The Mariners drew even with the Jaguars in the first six minutes of the second half, knotting the score 37-37 on a pair of free throws by Mike Manning at the 14:24 mark. Coastal Georgia build its lead to 45-37 with just over 12 to play and either led or found itself tied with the Jaguars all the way to the 3:14 mark when Travis Keel made a bucket in the paint that put Augusta State back in front and the Jaguars never trailed again as they went up by as much as five points down the stretch.
The Mariners shot 48 percent in the second half, but in the end, poor shooting again hurt Coastal Georgia, which has failed to reach 60 points in each of the last five games. The Mariners finished making just 34 percent of their attempts from the field. Mike Manning led Coastal with a game-high 21 points. He made 4-of-8 from 3-point land, including several clutch shots after halftime as the Mariners gave the Jaguars their best shot. Manning also led Coastal Georgia with 10 rebounds to record a double-double. Marcus Morrison and Jared Paul both scored 12 points to also finish in doubles for the Mariners.
For Augusta State, Devonte Thomas scored a team-high 17 points to lead the Jaguars. He was the only player to score in double figures for Augusta State, but nine of the 11 players who saw time in the game for the Jags scored at least one basket. Six Augusta State players logged at least 20 minutes of action in the contest.
The Mariners will be back in action Tuesday when they visit Coker College. They will be back at home Thursday to host Voorhees College. Coastal Georgia lost 85-70 at Voorhees in the season opener on Oct. 31.
