Gulf Coast loses to Copiah-Lincoln, falls to fourth seed in playoffs

PERKINSTON -- Mississippi Gulf Coast's fate swung as wildly as the crazy swings in Thursday's regular-season finale against Co-Lin.

An early 22-point lead turned into a 13-point deficit, and a go-ahead basket by Davison Cole-Johnson in the final 20 seconds was erased by the only shot Donte Watson made all night with 4.9 left.

Given one last chance to force overtime at the free throw line, the rally fell short and Gulf Coast lost 71-69 to fall from the No. 1 seed to the fourth-seed from the South Division in the MACJC Tournament.

"We lost the game in a dozen different ways," Gulf Coast coach Wendell Weathers said. "We missed too many free throws. We had some fairly stupid turnovers in the second half that led to layups. We didn't close out on shooters that made shots in the second half.

"In the first half, we rebounded the ball and controlled the boards. In the second half, we didn't do that on either end of the floor."

Gulf Coast (18-5, 9-5 South) will play North No. 1 Holmes in the opening round of the tournament at Itawamba.

Cole-Johnson had 19 points to lead Gulf Coast, which got 12 points from Maurice Stephens and Tedrian Brisco. Anfernee Hampton added 11 points, and Stephens led both teams with 15 rebounds.

Co-Lin's season ended at 7-16, 4-10, but the Wolfpack swept the Bulldogs in a pair of wild games. They won 105-101 in overtime at Wesson.

Gulf Coast led 29-7 less than 12 minutes into play, but Co-Lin switched to a zone and started chipping away at the deficit. It was 36-25 after a 10-0 run to end the half.

The press continued to cause the Bulldogs problems, and they missed all 16 shots from behind the 3-point arc.

Co-Lin would eventually take a 64-51 lead with 6:27 to play, and led by 10 before Cole-Johnson scored on fast break with 2:07 left.

The Wolfpack started missing free throws, and Cole-Johnson's drive with 43.3 seconds left made it 68-67 Co-Lin, setting up the frenetic final seconds.

After a Co-Lin charge, Cole-Johnson made a backdoor cut and converted the pass from Deshawn Jones with 11.4 seconds left for a Bulldogs lead.

But Gulf Coast lost Watson headed back up the court, and he buried a 3-pointer from the right corner with 4.3 seconds left.

"We come from 13 down and get ahead," Weathers said, "and then we don't pick up in transition in the last eight seconds."

The Bulldogs managed to get the ball to Hampton and he was fouled going to the rim with 0.2 seconds left. His first free throw bounced out, and he committed a lane violation on the second.

Co-Lin merely had to inbound the ball for the win.

Gulf Coast has also qualified for the Region 23 Tournament, to be played in Clinton the week after the MACJC Tournament.

"We've got two weeks left," Weathers said. "We've either got two games left or six games left. That's up to them. The teams that win these tournaments are the teams that aren't ready to quit playing."

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 11:01 PM with the headline "Gulf Coast loses to Copiah-Lincoln, falls to fourth seed in playoffs ."