Box Score AVE MARIA, Fla.- The Coastal Georgia men's basketball team (1-5(0-2)) fell in a heartbreaker to Ave Maria University (4-2(2-1)) on Saturday night.
The Mariners had the ball down three with 22 seconds left on the clock. A Mason McMurray three-pointer missed, and Anthony Duncan was able to grab it and kick the ball out to a wide-open Nick Jiles on the right wing who made the three-point shot but it was waved off as he did not release the ball in time and the Gyrenes snuck away with a 71-68 win.
McMurray and Jiles fueled the offense as they have all season, combing for 35 points on a combined 14-25 shooting. They both grabbed eight rebounds and combined for nine assists.
Torey James looked good in his first game as a Mariner. He recorded nine points off the bench and recorded a big block late in the game.
Kenny Brown also scored nine points while Layton Veon, Rodney Wiley Jr., Anthony Ross and Duncan combined for 15 points to round out the rest of the scoring.
For Ave Maria, Lucas Uzdavinis led the way with 22 points followed by Matt Gillis who recorded 15.
As a team, the Mariners struggled to find their shot. They were a serviceable 9-30 from the three-point line but shot just 38.8 percent from the field compared to the Gyrenes' efficient 50 percent from the field. Coastal Georgia also did a good job of controlling the ball as they outrebounded the Gyrenes 38-36 and had only eight turnovers to the Gyrenes' 10.
Ave Maria was able to force tough shots from the Mariners and control the paint scoring 40 points down low to the Mariners' 28.
How It Happened:
1st HALF: The Mariners were hot early on and jumped out to a 10-3 lead. Coastal Georgia further increased it after back-to-back threes from Kenny Brown and Layton Veon gave the Mariners a 19-8 lead. Ave Maria was able to stay within arm's length, however, and after a Nick Jiles layup with 5:16 remaining in the half, the Gyrenes went on a 15-4 run to take a 37-35 lead into the break.
2nd HALF: The Gyrenes continued on their scoring run coming out of the locker room. They went on a 12-2 run to increase their lead to 49-37 at the 14:13 mark. The Mariners remained down by 8-to-10 points the entire rest of the way until with 40 seconds left, Mason McMurray hit a three to cut the Gyrenes' lead down to four. After inbounding the ball quickly, Jiles swiped the ball from Ave Maria and took a few steps back before draining a three-pointer to bring the Mariners within one point as 33 seconds remained. The Gyrenes, however, would get a quick layup and the Mariners were not able to get a few last shot attempts to go as Ave Maria recorded its second Sun Conference win of the season 71-68.
UP NEXT:
The Mariners will play USC-Aiken on Nov. 21 at 7:30 pm in Aiken, S.C.
