No. 24 Gulf Coast stumbles in overtime

No. 24 Mississippi Gulf Coast went to overtime yet again Monday night at Co-Lin, losing 105-101.

Offense obviously wasn't a problem for the Bulldogs.

"It's just a matter of getting your tail down and guarding somebody," said coach Wendell Weathers.

Gulf Coast (14-2, 5-2 MACJC South) has played overtime games in three of the last four outings, going 1-2 in those contests. The Bulldogs are now in a four-way tie with Pearl River, East Central and Jones for first after the first half of the division schedule.

Co-Lin improved to 4-12, 2-5.

Deshawn Jones had 25 points for Gulf Coast, with Anfernee Hampton scoring 22, including a put-back of a missed free throw during a weird sequence at the end of regulation.

Davion Cole-Johnson had 19 points in his return following a one-game suspension, and Zach Parker had 17 points off the bench.

"WE won the second half by the seven points, but there was no reason to be behind seven or eight or nine in the first half," Weathers said. "I thought our defense in the first half was not good. I didn't think we rebounded the ball at all on our end."

Gulf Coast trailed by as many as nine in the second half, but chipped away and was tied at 82 with 2:05 left.

Co-Lin led 88-84 following a 3-pointer by Terik Richardson in the final 20 seconds, but when Cole-Johnson was fouled with 7.2 seconds left there was a technical called against Co-Lin.

Jones made the two free throws for the technical, but Cole-Johnson missed his. Hampton got the rebound and scored to force the extra frame.

"You can't give up 80, 85 points in this league and expect to win very many games," Weathers said. "We've done that on several occasions and won. We've played well but we've also been lucky."

The luck didn't last in overtime, despite a slow start by Co-Lin at the free-throw line. The Wolves missed four of their first five, but after Parker's 3 gave Gulf Coast its only lead of overtime at 96-95, Co-Lin made its last 10 from the charity stripe to pull away.

The Bulldogs head to Ellisville on Thursday in a game that will help break up the logjam at the top of the South Division.

"There's four, five or six good teams in this league," Weathers said. "Anybody can beat you on a given night if you don't play well. That's what it's going to come down to, who plays well down the stretch. There's no days off, there's no gimmes."