PERKINSTON — With less than five minutes to play in the first half Thursday, Mississippi Gulf Coast was in trouble. Down 16 at home to Itawamba, the Bulldogs were in danger of falling into a morass of teams huddled around the .500 mark.
The Bulldogs cut the halftime deficit to three, then roared past ICC in the second half on the way to an 89-74 win at Dantzler Arena.
“We just went on a really dry run,” Gulf Coast coach Owen Miller said. “I think we went nine empty possessions, and they were scoring, beating us in transition, getting to the free-throw line. We just made a couple shots. Our press was really good tonight, but when you’re not scoring, you can’t get into it. Once we were able to get a bucket, we got the game going the way we wanted it.”
The Bulldogs (15-8, 7-4 MACCC) moved up a spot to third in the standings, moving past Pearl River, which lost at East Mississippi. Itawamba started the night tied for fifth and ended in a six-way tie for sixth.
Duran Parish (Fr., Biloxi/Biloxi), who had a team-high 22, started the comeback with a pair of free throws followed by a 3-pointer. He added another 3-pointer during the 22-9 run to close the half, with Kaue Kalinowski (Fr., Curitiba Brazil/Divine Savior) nailing a buzzer-beating 3-point dagger after a steal by John Davis (So., Pascagoula/Pascagoula).
Kalinowski made half his eight 3-point attempts.
“Kaue really played well,” Miller said. “We inserted him back in the starting lineup. He had 18, but defensively it seemed like he was everywhere tonight. I’m proud for him because he’s been through some tough times shooting the ball, and he’s got his confidence back.”
The game seesawed in the second half until Gulf Coast turned a 66-64 lead after 10 minutes into a comfortable margin with a 13-2 run over the next five minutes.
Parish continued his run of strong play, filling up his stat line.
“I’m proud of seven rebounds,” Miller said. “We’ve really challenged him. That’s one of the areas we’ve struggled, and they’re plus-13 (in rebound margin) for the season. Duran’s a handful. He affects the game on both ends. He creates things defensively, and offensively he’s hard to stay in front of. He also had four assists.”
Omarion Smith (So., Atlanta Ga./Douglas County) had 10 of his team-high 14 rebounds in the first half, collecting a double-double with 14 points. Jabbari Barry (Fr., Lake Charles La./Barbe) added 12 points.
Gulf Coast will travel to Meridian on Monday before getting a week off around the open date. They’ll return to Dantzler on March 4 for Sophomore Night against Northwest Mississippi.
The Bulldogs start the final push in much better position after the huge rally Thursday.
“We talked about it. There’s a bunch of us with four losses. This was a game at home we felt like was going to be tough, but we knew we could create some separate to get in that top four and see where it goes.”
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