Brunswick, Ga. – In their first meeting this season with Faulkner, the College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team suffered an 83-70 loss to the Eagles Thursday night at Howard Coffin Gym.

The loss dropped the Mariners to 6-15 for the season and 2-7 in the Southern States Athletic Conference.

The Eagles moved closer to the .500 mark, going to 10-11 and 4-5 with the road win. Faulkner was coming off an upset at home Monday over Mobile which is currently tied for second in the league standings.

Coastal Georgia started fast in front of a fired-up crowd, going up by as much as seven points twice in the game's first eight minutes.

But with an 18-11 lead, the Mariners watched Faulkner go on a 15-2 run for a 26-20 lead with 7:07 to go in the opening half.

The Mariners did rebound, however, to close the half strong and take a 32-29 cushion into intermission.

The Mariners got off to a good start again in the second half, going in front by as much as six points.

This time, though, the lead disappeared quickly as an 11-3 run by Faulkner put the visitors in front 42-40 with 16:05 to play.

The Mariners would never lead again as Faulkner padded its lead to 63-53 just inside the nine-minute mark. Coastal Georgia would not get any closer than 69-64 with 2:07 to go.

Faulkner would extend its lead from there by repeatedly making foul shots over the remaining time.

In defeat, the Mariners got 14 points from Dominic Early, 13 from Marquice Jones, 12 from Andrej Tomic and 10 from Malik Channer.

Faulkner was led by Dimar Hill who poured in a game-high 27 points with a 14-for-16 showing at the foul line.

Nick Drake added 17 points and Logan Jozwiak tossed in 13.

Hill also topped the Eagles with seven rebounds.

Faulkner finished 27-for-39 at the foul line and shot 48 percent for the night from the field, hitting 23 of 47 shots.

The Mariners finished with more field goals as they were 27-for-62 from the floor to shoot 43.5 percent, but they got to the foul line just nine times in the game while hitting all but two charity shots.

Coastal Georgia had 19 turnovers. Faulkner finished with 18.

Faulkner and Coastal Georgia will meet again in the next-to-last game of the regular season in late February.

The Mariners are slated to face Auburn-Montgomery, which is tied for second in the SSAC with a 6-3 record, at 4 p.m. Saturday at home.

AUM defeated Brewton-Parker 88-79 Thursday in Mount Vernon.