Hattiesburg, Miss. – The College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team could not make it two in a row here Monday night as they fell 82-56 at William Carey in the Southern States Athletic Conference.
Coastal Georgia was coming off an overtime win Saturday at Blue Mountain as the team returned to action with its first road trip in the SSAC this season immediately after the holiday break.
The loss dropped the Mariners to 5-11 overall and 1-3 in the conference.
William Carey, a perennial conference power, improved to 7-8 while getting to 2-2 in the league with its second consecutive SSAC win.
The Crusaders took charge after the teams were even at 20-20 by going on a 16-5 run over the final 7:21 of the first half for a 36-25 advantage at halftime.
They led by double figures throughout the final 20 minutes.
William Carey's pressure defense forced the Mariners into 27 turnovers for the game including 19 before halftime as the Crusaders erased an early 11-3 deficit.
For the Mariners, senior forward Dominic Early, who was named the league player of the week earlier Monday after scoring 35 points in the win Saturday at Blue Mountain, finished with only 10 minutes including just two in the second half.
Early entered the game leading the SSAC in scoring with 24.2 points a contest, but was plagued by early foul trouble and played just over 26 minutes before fouling out with seven minutes to go.
Without Early's usual scoring output, the Mariners struggled offensively as they shot just 29.6 percent (16-54) from the floor as a team for the night.
Carey Walker came off the bench to score a team-best 11 points. Jamaal Rhodes scored 10 in defeat. Both Walker and Rhodes finished with six rebounds each.
Milton Geddes had five boards and three blocks.
For William Carey, Donta Pittman led all scorers with 19 points. Corey Jackson followed with 12 points and snared 11 rebounds for a double-double effort while also getting five steals.
The Crusaders shot 43.7 percent (31-71) from the floor despite going just 6-for-28 from the three-point arc.
William Carey did shoot 50 percent (16-32) from the field in the second half as they pulled away for the win.
Coastal Georgia will now return home for games Thursday against Mobile and Saturday versus Loyola at Howard Coffin Gym. Game times are 7:30 p.m. on Thursday and 4 p.m. on Saturday following earlier women's games to tip off the doubleheaders.
