Brunswick, Ga. – Sometimes you're elated to play overtime, but sometimes you aren't.
For the College of Coastal Georgia men's team it was the latter Saturday at Howard Coffin Gym against a surging Auburn-Montgomery team which had won three straight games prior to the first Southern States Athletic Conference matchup against the Mariners this season.
But in the end, even though they needed overtime to wrap up the win, the Mariners were able to hold off the Warhawks 74-69 and get a split in this week's two-game home stand which opened with a loss Thursday to Faulkner.
Coastal Georgia (7-15 overall, 3-7 SSAC) was on the verge of winning a nip-and-tuck game in regulation before AUM's sharp-shooting Reagan Eubanks canned a three-point basket at the top of the key with just 13 seconds left to tie the score for the eighth time of the afternoon at 62-62.
The fourth three-ball of the game by Eubanks, who hit a fifth in overtime and led his team with 20 points on the day, meant the Mariners would have to go extra time for the fifth time this season and fourth time in their last eight games.
Coastal Georgia did get off a shot on its final possession, but a tough look by Dominic Early was off the mark, thus the game went to OT.
In the extra frame, the Mariners jumped ahead 66-62 on a pair of free throws and a close-range basket by Early, who led the team again with 17 points.
AUM (12-8, 6-4) would score the next four points to tie the score for the ninth time in the game on back-to-back shots by Khalid Banks who made it 66-66 with 1:24 to go on a second-chance score.
On Coastal Georgia's next possession, Marquice Jones drove baseline and was fouled while making a pull-up jumper with just over a minute to go. Jones, who finished with 11 points, converted the crucial three-point play to give the home squad a 69-66 advantage.
The Mariners would go up five on two Jamaal Rhodes foul shots before Eubanks kept AUM alive with his fifth three-pointer of the day that made it 71-69 with 28 seconds left.
With AUM fouling on purpose, Jones hit the first of two foul shots for the Mariners on the other end to make it 72-69 with 20 seconds to go. AUM got off two more threes on its next trip including another by Eubanks with three seconds left that was off the mark and fell out of bounds.
Jones would then put an exclamation point on the win for Coastal Georgia with two more free throws to account for the final five-point margin.
For the Mariners, Rhodes and Derrick Frye also scored 11 points each in the win to give the team four players in double figures.
Andrej Tomic led a balanced rebounding effort by the Mariners as he pulled down 11 rebounds. Milton Geddes followed with seven boards as did Jones who also recorded four assists.
Coastal Georgia also produced at the foul line, going 18-for-22 as a team which was crucial in a close game in which the largest lead by either side was four points for the entire second half.
AUM also got 14 points from Julius McCoy, 12 from Bobby Thompson and 10 from Banks.
Coastal Georgia held the largest lead of the game at 21-11 just less than 11 minutes into the action before seeing the Warhawks outscore them 20-12 the remainder of the opening half to pull within 33-31 at intermission and set the stage for the tightly-contested second half and overtime.
The Mariners will now go on the road for games at defending national champion Dalton State on Thursday and Middle Georgia State on Saturday before returning to the Coffin on Feb. 6 to take on Brewton-Parker.
