Bulldogs grab opening W 90-72

PERKINSTON — Mississippi Gulf Coast tipped off the 2022-23 men's basketball season with a relatively easy 90-72 win over Southern-Shreveport at Weathers-Wentzell Center.

Darius Dawson (So., Sumter S.C./West Florence) led the Bulldogs with 19 points, and Javeon Gordon (Fr., Mount Olive/Mount Olive) had 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds off the bench.

"I thought we played really well in the first half," Gulf Coast coach Tim Ryan said. "The numbers in the first half were really good defensively. We're still not shooting the ball great, but we shot it better in the second half because we were getting layups."

Gulf Coast held the Jaguars (0-2) to 27 percent shooting from the field on the way to a 44-25 lead at the break. Southern-Shreveport made 8-of-15 from behind the arc in the second half to make a run to get the Bulldogs lead cut down to 71-64 with 5:43 to play, but Gulf Coast went on a 16-2 run to coast to the finish.

Dawson added eight rebounds and had a number of shots rim out.

"I thought he had a heckuva game," said Ryan.

Gordon filled up the hustle stat line with five of his rebounds on the offensive end while making four steals on the other end.

Jabarie Robinson (Fr., Raymond/Raymond) shot 7-of-12 from the field, including 2-of-3 from the 3-point line, to finish with 17 points. He also added five rebounds.

"He had a great game," Ryan said. "He just came up with big play after big play. Every time we needed a big basket, eh came up with it."

Donovan Sanders (So., Walls/Lake Cormorant) had a game-high 11 assists.

Gulf Coast gets a day off before returning to action against Piney Woods. Tipoff Friday at the Weathers-Wentzell Center is set for 6 p.m. The game will be streamed at https://mgcccbulldogs.com/watch.

For more information on MGCCC's 11 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.