LAKELAND, Fla.—Southeastern struggled to keep pace with the outside shooting of Coastal Georgia in the second half as the Mariners came back to defeat the Fire 78-67 in the first game of the 2021 portion of the schedule.
The Mariners (4-3, 2-2 TSC) outscored SEU 46-37 in the second half, connecting on seven of their 12 3-point attempts to come away with the win.
Southeastern (8-5, 3-4 TSC) led by six in the first half with 5:22, using a 7-0 run to go from a point down to its biggest lead of the game at 25-19. The Mariners came right back out of a timeout, answering with a four-point play by Kenny Brown and a dunk by Donte Oliphant to tie the game in just 74 seconds.
At halftime, the Mariners held a 32-30 lead.
Sean Shore gave the Fire the lead back on the first possession of the second with a 3-pointer, but that's when Elijah Goodman stepped up for CCGA, scoring 12 of his teams first 15 points of the second half to build a 47-42 lead with 13:54 left.
Goodman led all scorers with 31 points, picking up 22 in the second half and was 6-of-11 from 3-point range for the day.
A 13-2 run by the Mariners gave them a 16-point (62-46) with 10:46 left. It got to 17 as late as the 6:46 mark, but the Fire refused to fold, scoring eight straight points to get the deficit back to single digits (69-60) at the 5:05 mark.
Riley Matticks connected on a 3-pointer with 1:44 left to get within two possession at 73-67, but were unable to get any closer.
Reggie Mesidor paced the Fire with 14 points, going 5-of-6 at the free throw line, and picked up five rebounds and five steals. In his first start,
Sean Shore had 13 points, connecting on three 3-pointers, and had five rebounds. Matticks added 11 points.
The Fire return to action on Wednesday with a non-conference game against Great Lakes Christian.
