Brunswick, Ga. – The College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team appeared poised to possiblly give visiting Mobile its first loss of the season in the Southern States Athletic Conference Thursday night at Howard Coffin Gym.
However, the Rams (11-4 overall, 5-0 conference), who are receiving votes for the Top 25 poll, took advantage of a late collapse by the Mariners to pull out a 71-58 victory in the first game for the Mariners (5-12, 1-4) at home since breaking for the Christmas holiday.
It looked like a nip-and-tuck affair might go down to the wire as neither team led by more than three points over the first 13 minutes in the second half of a game that the Mariners led 31-30 at halftime after owning a nine-point cushion at one point in the opening stanza.
But with Mobile clinging to a 50-47 lead just inside the seven-minute mark, the Mariners committed a series of turnovers which helped fuel a 13-0 spurt by the Rams that gave the visitors a 53-47 advantage and send the Mariners to the home defeat.
A cold shooting night also doomed the Mariners who managed just eight field goals in both halves and finished shooting 30.8 percent (16-52) from the floor over the 40 minutes.
The Mariners were able to stay in the game until the Rams' late surge due to their free-throw shooting as they hit 22 of 27 charity shots for the game.
Also, it helped that Coastal Georgia got another big game from senior forward Dominic Early who led all scorers with 28 points while going 9-for-9 from the foul line and 9-for-15 from the field. Early, the top scorer in the conference and the reigning SSAC Player of the Week, also led the Mariners with eight rebounds.
No other Coastal Georgia player could reach double figures. Marquice Jones was the team's next highest scorer with seven points.
For Mobile, 6-foot-9 senior center Daouda Soumaoro led the scoring effort with 21 points to go with 10 boards. D.J. Hill added 13 points, Brandon Barnes scored 12 and Dominique Lawrence had 10.
Will Hornsby snared seven rebounds for the Rams.
Mobile outscored the Mariners 52-22 in the paint which helped the Rams shoot 55.2 percent (28-51) from the field for the night.
Coastal Georgia is scheduled to host Loyola on Saturday. Game time is set for 4 p.m. following an earlier women's game.
