Montgomery, Ala. - The College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team lost 99-72 to Loyola on Wednesday afternoon in a play-in game for the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl.

With the loss, the Mariners (7-23) are finished for the 2012-13 season. A victory would have earned them a spot in the tournament proper and a third matchup this season with second-ranked Lee University in the tournament quarterfinals on Thursday.

The Mariners made the tournament as the fifth and final seed from the SSAC East Division. They actually tied for fourth in the division standings with Truett-McConnell, but the Bears won a tiebreaker over Coastal Georgia for the fourth seed.

Loyola (16-13) entered Wednesday's game as the No. 4 seed from the SSAC West and had lost its previous two games in overtime.

Reggie Burke  led the Mariners in scoring with 24 points. P.J. Reason added 19.

Tommy McCall paced Loyola with a game-high 40 points. Robert Lovaglio added 23.

The Mariners unfortunately didn't have one of their best players at full-strength for the game. Kentorey Johnson, who came down with the flu on Tuesday, tried to play but it was obvious he wasn't his usual self. Johnson, who was the team's second-leading scorer with 14.7 points a game and top rebounder with eight boards a game, played just over 19 minutes without scoring while grabbing just three rebounds.

"That was huge," said Coastal Georgia coach Gerald Cox of not having Johnson anywhere near his best. "He tried, but he wasn't a tenth of what he normally is. He could have slowed down one of those scorers too."

The Mariners got down 9-0 at the start and trailed by single-digits for the entire first half before making a late run and taking a 33-32 lead on the Wolfpack. But Loyola finished the opening half on a 7-0 run to take a 40-33 lead into intermission.

The Wolfpack would quickly take a double-figure lead in the second half and never looked back, leading by at least 20 points for the final 13:20 of the game.

"After we went ahead, it went downhill from there," Cox said. "It was like we stireed up a hornet's nest. They may have played better, but we just didn't play as well."

Cox said he was glad the Mariners did at least get to experience the conference tournament. After their game, the Mariners stayed for the tournament banquet where they won several awards.

"We can build on this season," the veteran coach said. "Everyone knows what it takes to get the job done."