Brunswick, Ga. – The College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team came up short again Tuesday night, absorbing a tough 89-87 loss to Edward Waters College at Howard Coffin Gym.
The non-league loss was the fifth in a row for the Mariners (4-7) and sixth in their last seven games. All but one of Coastal Georgia's losses this season has been by six points or less.
"We had 11 players out there tonight and not a team," said Coastal Georgia coach Jesse Watkins. "When we start playing as a team again, we'll starting winning."
The Mariners will have plenty of time to think about this latest loss. They are breaking for first-semester exams which start this week and continue into next week. The team doesn't play again until it visits North Florida, which made the NCAA tournament last year, on Dec. 12. That game, which will be televised on EPSN3, will be the first of three in seven days for the Mariners on the road before they break for Christmas.
Coastal Georgia was looking to sweep Edward Waters this season after knocking off the Tigers 61-51 in the third game of the season on Nov. 3 in Jacksonville.
The Mariners had the ball last with a chance to tie or win, but a three-point bucket by Dominic Early from the left corner that was closely guarded missed the mark and the Tigers came away with the rebound as time expired.
Coastal Georgia erased an 87-82 deficit in the final 45 seconds. Jamal Rhodes, who scored 18 points in the loss, drilled a three-pointer from the top of the key with 36 seconds left to bring the Mariners within 87-85.
Coastal Georgia then pressured the Tigers into a turnover in the backcourt and promptly drew a foul on their throw-in from the base line under the Mariners' basket which sent one of the team's top shooters, Hunter DeRuiter, to the foul line for two shots to possibly draw even on the scoreboard.
DeRuiter calmly made both attempts to make for an 87-87 tie.
However, the Tigers executed out of a timeout to take the lead on a pull-up shot along the baseline by Charles-Eddie Smith, but because they scored quickly, the Mariners had time to rush the ball into their frontcourt and call time to set up a play with 4.8 seconds left.
They got the ball to Early, but he was well-defended as he took a three that would have given the Mariners the win had it gone down.
The last time the Mariners were at home, they dropped an 87-84 game to Bethel in the Southern States Athletic Conference when Malik Channer's three from nearly the same spot was waived off because it didn't beat the final horn.
On Tuesday, the Mariners got down by as much s 14 in the first half before cutting their margin to 47-39 at intermission.
The Mariners took the lead for the first time since the game's first minute at 55-54 with 13:42 left on a put back by Joshua Thompson.
The teams were tied several times over the next several minutes and neither side led by more than four points until the Tigers went up 82-75 with 2:25 to go and appeared headed for an easy win.
The Mariners, though, started their late surge with an old-fashioned three-point play by Derrick Frye that made it 84-80 with 1:19 to go and finally caught the Tigers in the closing seconds.
For the game, Dominic Early led all scorers with 25 points for Coastal Georgia. Frye joined Rhodes with 18 points in the loss.
The Mariners shot 43.3 percent from the field, making 29 of 67 shots. They were just 6-for-26 from the three-point arc, however.
In the first meeting between the teams, Coastal Georgia held the Tigers to just over 30 percent shooting, but the visitors shot 52.9 percent before halftime and finished shooting 50.8 percent for the game as they were 33-of-65 from the floor including several baskets around the rim.
Smith led the Tigers with 22 points coming off the bench. He scored 16 in the first half. Michael McCode followed with 20 points in the win.
Rhodes finished with 10 rebounds for Coastal Georgia to record a double-double.
