Brunswick, Ga. -- The College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team defeated visiting Andrew College 96-73 Saturday afternoon at Howard Coffin Gym to move to 2-0 on the season.
Led by 20 points from senior
Alex Zambonetti, six Mariners scored in double figures. Junior
Thaddeus Burns scored 16 points, senior
Caiden Punt added 15, redshirt sophomore
Ellis Graham scored 14 and senior
Khylan McKennie and sophomore
Nick Patton both contributed 10 points in the Coastal Georgia victory. It was an offensive showcase for the Mariners, who shot 50% from the floor in the second half. Nine different players scored overall.
Graham and Patton tied for the team lead with eight rebounds. Punt and Burns also recorded seven rebounds each. Graham additionally made a significant impact defensively. He recorded five blocked shots and altered several more.
"Even shorthanded, we had some guys that came in and had a ton of effort, had a ton of intensity. I thought that we were the more disciplined team for 40 minutes. Andrew can certainly effect the way that you play with how they trap and how aggressive they are defensively and I thought our guys, for the most part, for about 30, 35 minutes, really handled that well. There were some stints where we've got to get better and go back to the film and be able to really hone in on some things in order to beat great teams. But I thought overall today that guys came in with a level of focus and intensity that I was really pleased with," explained CCGA head coach
Tim MacAllister. "When you're shorthanded you've got to have guys play really, really well and you've got to have some guys who don't have their level drop no matter how many minutes they play. I thought guys like Thad Burns tonight were really, really good.
Alex Zambonetti played a ton of minutes and played really well. All of our guards and our bigs as well. I thought
Ellis Graham got off to a slow start and then had the spectacular finish, so really pleased with that."
Next up for Coastal Georgia is a trip to Waleska, Georgia and Reinhardt University for the Coke Classic. The Mariners will face the Eagles on Friday, November 6th at 7:00pm.
