Cole-Johnson pours in 32 as MGCCC beats Co-Lin

Davion Cole-Johnson tied a career-best with 32 points and Stacee St. Julian had a double-double for Mississippi Gulf Coast, which held on for an 81-78 victory at Copiah-Lincoln on Thursday.

The Bulldogs led by as many as 16 points with 13 minutes to play, but a flurry of three 3-pointers by the Wolfpack late in the game sliced the lead to 4.

"I think at the end some of our guys got tired," Gulf Coast coach Wendell Weathers said. "I'm not sure we're still not trying to get Christmas out of us."

Cole-Johnson (6-4, 210, So., Pike/Glen Ellyn, Ill.) made 15-of-23 shots from the field and also grabbed seven rebounds. St. Julian (6-0, 165, Fr., St. Martin/St. Martin) had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Harvey Smart (6-3, 167, So., West Harrison/Gulfport) led the Bulldogs (10-1, 2-0 MACJC South) with 11 rebounds. Zach Parker (6-2, 185, So., Biloxi/Biloxi) had 15 points, and Qua'darius Green (6-8, 180, Fr., McComb/McComb) added 14 points and nine rebounds.

"We talked about that before the game," Weathers said. "If you just run the offense, you'll get to the rim. I thought we didn't do a very good job running our offense, and we still scored 81 points."

Gulf Coast outrebounded Co-Lin 51-40.

The Bulldogs saw a 13-point lead late in the second half all but evaporate after those Co-Lin 3-pointers. Gulf Coast would push it back to double-digits, but the Wolfpack cut it to 3 with 21 seconds left.

Co-Lin missed a 3-pointer, but then had a series of offensive rebounds that led to opportunities to cut into the lead or tie. The Wolfpack didn't convert any of them and Gulf Coast held on.

Gulf Coast, which remains tied for first in the South Division, returns to action Tuesday when East Central visits Perkinston. Tipoff at the Weathers/Wentzell Center is at 7:30 p.m.

For more information on MGCCC's 10 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCAthletics on Twitter and BulldogLIVE on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.