Cleveland, Ga. – The College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team dropped the second game of its long road trip on Monday night, falling 92-79 at Truett-McConnell in an East Division game in the Southern States Athletic Conference.
The Mariners were hoping to rebound from their Saturday loss at seventh-ranked Lee University with a win over the Bears, but instead Coastal Georgia saw the home team win its first conference game as it pulled away late to seal the win.
Coastal Georgia (4-15, 2-7) trailed by 76-74 with just over four minutes to play, but the Bears ran away by outscoring the Mariners 16-5 to end the game.
The Mariners actually trailed most of the game. They never led in the first half until a second-chance basket by Kostas Ezomo before the buzzer sounded to end the opening half put the Mariners in front 41-40 at intermission.
The Bears quickly regained the lead once the second half started and led for all but one brief moment after that, but while they threatened to run away from the Mariners several times earlier, Coastal Georgia didn't allow that to happen until those decisive final four minutes.
For the game, Anthony Dorsey, who entered the night averaging 27.6 points a game to lead the conference, went for 38 points against Coastal Georgia including 25 in the first half. Dorsey finished the game 18-for-26 from the floor with only one of his baskets coming from three-point range.
Brandon Joiner and Andretti Loyd followed with 18 and 17 points, respectively, for the Bears.
Dorsey and Joiner led the Bears with eight rebounds each.
In defeat, the Mariners got pretty good balance. Sophomore guard Reggie Burke led the team with 20 points while Dustin Henry (16), Kentorey Johnson (12) and Jevan Billinger (10) all finished in double figures. P.J. Reason contributed nine points for the Mariners to just missed twin numbers.
Johnson led the Mariners on the glass with 10 rebounds to record another double-double performance. The double-double was the eight of the season for Johnson which leads the SSAC.
The Bears shot 59 percent from the floor for the game.
Coastal Georgia had won back-to-back conference games before dropping each of its last two. The Mariners will be back at home on Thursday for the first time since Jan. 1 when they play host to SSAC East foe Southern Wesleyan. The game is set for an 8 p.m. tipoff and will follow a women's game between the two schools.
