Blue Mountain, Miss. – The College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team is no longer winless in the Southern States Athletic Conference.
The Marines came off the deck here Thursday night, knocking off Blue Mountain 87-83 in overtime to open their two-game road trip to Mississippi.
The win was the first for Coastal Georgia (4-20 overall, 1-14 SSAC) since a Dec. 11 non-conference win at home over Armstrong State. The Mariners had lost 13 straight games and had not won in their first 14 conference games.
The Mariners lost their first game against the Toppers by 66-50 on Jan. 5.
The loss left Blue Mountain with a 10-9 overall record and a 7-7 mark in the conference.
The Mariners had to make a big comeback to pull out the win as they rallied from a 19-point deficit in the final nine minutes.
Coastal Georgia still trailed by five points as the game reached the final minutes, but freshman point guard Jonathan Canada pulled the team within 72-70 with a three-pointer with 26 seconds left.
After two made free throws by the Toppers, Haylen Washington, who scored a game-high 26 points, hit another three for the Mariners to get them within 74-73 with now 15 seconds to go.
Following another made free throw by the Toppers for a 75-73 lead with four seconds to go, the Mariners had one last chance to tie or possibly win in regulation.
They would settle for the tie when freshman guard Jordan Lewis was fouled going to the basket. He went to the foul line with only a second left on the clock and knocked down two foul shots to tie the score with at 75-all and send the game into OT.
In the five-minute extra session, the teams were tied three different times before Coastal Georgia gained the lead for good on a foul shot by Lewis that made it 82-81 with 50 seconds to play.
Lewis extended the Mariners' lead to 83-81 with another freebie after a missed shot and foul by the Toppers with 21 seconds left.
Blue Mountain would misfire again on its next trip and Washington would get fouled following a rebound. He made one of two foul shots to give the Mariners an 84-81 in the closing seconds.
The Toppers did score on their next trip to cut their deficit to a point, but the Mariners put away the game with Lewis making three foul shots before the final horn for the four-point win.
Canada finished with 16 points for the Mariners while Lewis would end up with 13.
Washington also led the Mariners with 13 rebounds for a double-double performance.
Coastal Georgia shot 51.5 percent (17-33) in the second half and overtime period.
Blue Mountain got 17 points from both Jay Howard and Justin McClellon.
Coastal Georgia will stay in Mississippi to play William Carey on Saturday.
