Mariners battle for OT win at Keiser, league semifinals next
CCG Sports Information
BOX SCORE
West Palm Beach, Fla. - In yet another down-to-the-wire finish in the Sun Conference, the College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team stayed alive in the league tournament by clipping Keiser University 86-85 in overtime here on Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the league tournament.
The tournament win was the first for the Mariners in the Sun Conference after they fell in their tournament opener last year when playing their first season as the newest league member.
But early in the overtime period on Tuesday, it looked like the Mariners would be sent packing in their first tournament game a second straight season.
Looks have been known to be deceiving, though.
And for a team that has seen its own seemingly insurmountable leads go away several times this season, the Mariners refused to quit when they were down 83-76 with 3:12 to go in the extra frame after the Seahawks scored the first seven points of the OT period.
Instead of going away for good, the Mariners quickly made a game of it again with back-to-back three-point baskets by
Vidmantas Kaciuska and
Devonta Leslie to get back within 83-82 with 2:01 left on the clock.
Following a scoreless trip by Keiser on its next possession, the Mariners claimed an 84-83 lead on a
Elijah Goodman jump shot with 1:15 left.
Both teams came up empty on their next possessions, but after Keiser called a timeout with 15 seconds to go the next time it had the ball, the Seahawks scored on a jump shot by Andrija Matic, who had a monster double-double game for the home team, to go back in front 85-84 with only nine seconds left.
The Mariners elected not to call a timeout and would quickly race the ball into their frontcourt.
Leslie, who was handling the ball, saw
Jaylen Smallwood running wide open toward the basket along the wing and passed the ball to Coastal Georgia's top scorer who finished at the rim while also getting fouled to give the Mariners their 86-85 lead with only three second left.
Smallwood missed his ensuing foul shot, and though the Seahawks got the rebound, all they could manage was a desperation shot from midcourt as time expired. The Mariners' bench instantly spilled onto the court to celebrate the big victory.
"We just kept fighting," said Coastal Georgia head coach
Jesse Watkins. "Our kids played hard. Their kids did, too. Our kids were just relentless. They came through."
The win makes the Mariners 16-13 for the season. They won their final regular-season game Saturday at home to earn the final spot in the league tournament. The Mariners are the No. 5 seed in the tournament.
Coastal Georgia will now head to the Friday semifinals to face the top seed, Warner University, who is hosting the semifinals and finals as the league regular-season champion.
The other semifinal will match No. 2 seed Southeastern against No. 3 seed Ave Maria which defeated St. Thomas University 80-69 in the other quarterfinal game on Tuesday.
Keiser finishes its season 15-14 overall. They were 11-7 in the league in the regular season and were the No. 4 seed for the tournament.
In the regular season, the Mariners and Seahawks both won at home when the teams faced off. Keiser had a 43-23 lead on the Mariners at halftime in their January meeting here before holding off Coastal Georgia 74-73 in a surprising down-to-the-end game.
This time, the Seahawks weren't so lucky, though this game was much closer than that last one.
Still, Coastal Georgia also had to come from behind here Tuesday to force the overtime as the Mariners trailed 67-60 with just under eight minutes to go in regulation.
They would go on a quick run to even the score at 70-70 with 5:16 to go on an
Elijah Wade bucket.
Keiser went up 76-72 with two minutes to play, but the Mariners scored the final four points to forge the 76-76 deadlock at the end of regulation.
A Smallwood layup with 1:46 to go brought the Mariners within two, and then after forcing a Keiser turnover, the Mariners got another lay-in from Goodman to pull even with 1:38 to play.
Neither team scored on their final two possessions with Coastal Georgia missing three shots in the final eight seconds with the ball last in regulation.
Keiser did lead by as much as 12 in the first 20 minutes before taking a 39-34 cushion into halftime.
In the second half, the Mariners took their first lead and went up by as much as five in the first five minutes.
But after Keiser regained the lead, the home team never trailed until the Mariners erased their seven-point deficit in overtime.
The loss was a tough one for the Seahawks to stomach as they fell at home with three players scoring over 20 points.
Marko Orlic led all scorers with 27 points while Matic followed closely with 24 and Jermar Perkins poured in 22.
Mattic was also dominant on the backboards for the home team as he finished with a whopping 26 rebounds as Keiser snared 52 boards to only 34 by the Mariners.
Keiser also lost while shooting 50 percent (33-66) from the field, though it made only three of 12 three-point tries.
The Mariners shot a respectable 43.2 percent (35-81) from the floor while connecting on six of their 18 shots from the three-point arc.
Both teams missed six free throws with Keiser attempting 22 foul shots to 16 by the Mariners.
Smallwood, the second-leading scorer in the conference in the regular season with a 19.7 per game average, finished with 23 points to lead the Mariners while Leslie followed with 20 as he played 32 minutes off the bench.
Also, Wade chipped in with 12 points while Goodman added 10 to go with a team-high 12 rebounds and five blocks.
Jonathan Canada recorded five assists for the Mariners and committed just two turnovers as the starting point guard.
"I'm happy for our guys," Watkins said when summing up the night. "It's good to see them experience a win like this with all we've been through this season with injuries and everything else. Now, we have to see if we can keep it rolling."