Brunswick, Ga. – The College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team won its fourth game of the young season Tuesday night with a convincing 98-82 victory over Erskine College at Howard Coffin Gym.
The Mariners (4-2) have now won four times in six tries to start the season and have already equaled their win total from all of last season in the first three weeks of the 2015-16 slate.
The Flying Fleet, an NCAA Division II program, fell to 1-2 for the season. The win was the first for the Mariners over Erskine in three all-time meetings. The teams played a home-and-home series back in the 2012-13 season when the Mariners were just two years into playing at the four-year level.
"I'm just proud of my guys tonight," said Coastal Georgia second-year head coach Jesse Watkins. "We had a lot of guys who played significant minutes and a lot of guys contributed."
The Mariners certainly had their best offensive game of the season as the 98 points were the most they have scored thus far. They scored 78 in a four-point loss to Morris College in the second game of the season.
Coastal Georgia was 34-of-66 from the field to shoot 51.5 percent for the game which is the team's best shooting percentage of the season.
The Mariners put three players in double figures with Dominic Early leading way with 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting. Early has led the Mariners in scoring in each of the first six games. Derrick Frye, the team's second-leading scorer coming in the game with his 11.4 average, poured in 23 points while Marquice Jones came off the bench to score 20.
Three Coastal Georgia players had three or more assists with Hunter DeRuiter showing 5, Early four and Malik Channer three.
"I was really happy with the way we shared the ball tonight," Watkins said. "We didn't settle for jump shots and got a bunch of layups."
Erskine got 28 points from Joby Glymph in the loss. Thomas Nolan followed with 17 and Ray Lock added 15 and a team-high seven rebounds. The Flying Fleet shot 39.3 percent for the night, making 24 of 61 shots from the floor. They connected on just five of 23 attempts from the three-point arc and were 29-for-41 at the foul line.
The opening 20 minutes finished with the Mariners holding a 36-30 lead after the teams were tied three times and exchanged the lead six times before the halftime break.
The second half started with the Mariners giving the Fleet trouble with their full-court press and going on a quick 8-0 run that began with a Channer three-point bucket, followed by another trey by Frye after a turnover and then a bucket in the paint by Frye following another Erskine turnover for a 44-30 lead.
Coastal Georgia would lead by twin numbers for all but a few seconds the rest of the way. The Mariners took their largest lead, 86-67, with 7:17 to play on a three-pointer by Early.
Milton Geddes led the Mariners with nine rebounds while also blocking four shots.
Coastal Georgia will now take the next two days to prepare for its opening weekend of play in the Southern States Athletic Conference. The Mariners will be at home on Friday to face No. 11 Martin Methodist at 7:30 p.m. Friday and will also be at home on Saturday for a 2 p.m. game against Bethel, which is receiving votes for the Top 25.
"We have to move on now and get ready for those conference games this weekend," Watkins said. "We've got two good teams coming here."
