MGCCC Men clinch R23 bye

PERKINSTON — Mississippi Gulf Coast's big Sophomore Night victory did more than just celebrate a great group of players who have led the way to putting the Bulldogs back on the map.

Gulf Coast beat Northwest 93-77 to clinch a top-four spot in the final MACCC standings and earn a bye into the quarterfinals of the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament on Monday.

"It's really big," Gulf Coast coach Owen Miller said. "We don't have to play on Saturday and then we get to host a home game after extra rest. We don't have to travel. This was something we set out to do, and to see that come to live is really rewarding. We've still got a lot left to play for, and the ultimate goal is still in front of us."

The Bulldogs improved to 17-8 overall, 9-4 in MACCC play. They're tied for third with East Mississippi but hold the head-to-head tiebreaker with them. Both teams are a game back of Northeast Mississippi and Jones, who are in a first-place tie.

Gulf Coast, which has won four straight and six of the last seven, will close the regular season out Thursday with a trip to Summit. The Bulldogs will tip off against Southwest Mississippi at 7:30 p.m.

The Bulldogs used a pair of patented spurts to turn the game around in the first half and close it out in the second. They trailed 38-29 with six minutes left before Kaue Kalinowski (Fr., Curitiba Brazil/Divine Savior) sparked a 19-6 run. He made a layup, a driving finish and a left-elbow jumper.

Omarion Smith (So., Atlanta Ga./Douglas County) stole an inbounds pass for a layup and a free throw four seconds later, part of an 11-0 run over less than two minutes that put Gulf Coast back ahead. Smith finished with 18 points and four blocked shots.

They'd go into the locker room up 48-41 and led by as many as 13 early in the second half before the Rangers (8-18, 4-10) got back in it. They tied it up at 63 with 11:41 left, and Gulf Coast delivered the knockout punch five minutes later.

Javeon Gordon (So., Mount Olive/Mount Olive) hit a 3-pointer from the corner to start a 29-second flurry. John Davis (So., Pascagoula/Pascagoula) threw an alley-oop off the backboard that Smith jammed, and a steal off the press gave Davis another 3 from the same corner.

"Both those runs, you know how we play," Miller said. "We play for those runs. We were able to get two of those, one in each half, and that was the difference in the game."

Duran Parish (Fr., Biloxi/Biloxi) and Jabbari Barry (Fr., Lake Charles La./Barbe) led the Bulldogs with 20 points. Parish was one rebound and two assists away from a triple-double.

Kalinowski finished with 13 points. 

Gulf Coast has already won seven more games than last year when the Bulldogs missed the playoffs with five conference wins. Miller has been able to turn things around thanks in large part to the leadership of his sophomores.

"I'm really happy for them," he said. "The buy-in from them has been everything we needed. From Day 1, it's been important for them to get this thing back right. We'll look back 10 years from now and look at this group of sophomores and say they were the ones to bring this standard back to Gulf Coast.

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