Brunswick, Ga. – The College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team won its home opener in front of a large crowd Saturday night at Howard Coffin Gym, knocking off Thomas University 74-65 for its third win in four games in the first week of the regular season.
Coastal Georgia split a pair of games last weekend at a tournament held at Brewton-Parker before winning 61-51 on Tuesday at Edward Waters College in Jacksonville.
In that game, the Mariners fell behind in the first half and shot themselves back into the contest before intermission by knocking down several three-point shots while playing steady defense in the second half to finish off the Tigers on their home floor.
Coastal Georgia won Saturday's game in about the same w ay. The Mariners trailed Thomas (2-1) by as much as 29-21 in the first half, but with leading scorer Dominic Early hitting two three-point shots to ignite a quick spurt the Mariners were suddenly down just 33-31 with 2:40 to play until halftime.
Then, it was Hunter DeRuiter's turn. The sophomore sharp shooter brought the Mariners within 35-34 after Thomas made a bucket for a four-point cushion, and then after the visitors scored again to go up three, DeRuiter canned another trey just inside the final minute to make for a 37-37 tie at intermission.
After halftime, the teams were tied five different times and neither side led by more than two before a 9-3 spurt by the Mariners gave them a 59-53 cushion with 7:30 left. Thomas did close within 59-57 with just over five to play, but as the Mariners locked down defensively again, they went on a 10-0 run to pull away for good, building their largest lead of the night at 71-59 just inside the final minute.
"I'm happy with my guys for hanging in there and finishing the job," said Coastal Georgia head coach Jesse Watkins, who already has the Mariners within one victory of matching last season's four-win total.
"Our guys are buying into what we want to do defensively. We made some adjustments at halftime with our defense and the guys did a great job. We're setting goals each game for what we want to do on defense based on our scouting reports on our opponents. Tonight, we wanted to hold them to 30-32 in the first half, and they got 37. We came out of halftime not wanting them to score more than 65 and that's what happened."
Coastal Georgia checked Thomas to 38 percent shooting (19-50) while also forcing the Night Hawks into 18 turnovers.
The Mariners were fairly efficient on the offense end, finishing the game shooting 44.9 percent (22-49) while going 7-for-15 from the three-point line to shoot 46.7 percent from long range. They did make just 23 of 37 foul shots.
Early led the Mariners in scoring a fourth-straight game, going for a game-best 30 points. Milton Geddes also finished in double figures with 10 points. Corey Harris had seven points and six assists for the Mariners. Former Brunswick standout Marquice Jones added eight points for the Mariners while returning to play in front of the home folks after starting his collegiate career in the junior-college ranks.
The Mariners committed 13 turnovers.
Javoris Cooks led Thomas with 20 points. Mike Lyons added 14 in defeat. Andrea Robinson scored nine points and led the team with 11 boards.
