PERKINSTON — A boisterous Dantzler Arena got a proper breaking in Monday night as Mississippi Gulf Coast returned from the Thanksgiving break with a comeback 87-82 win over East Central in men’s basketball action.

 

The Bulldogs erased a seven-point deficit with 5:20 to play by spurting on a 11-0 run over the next three minutes.

 

“I thought were able to get stops we hadn’t been getting,” Gulf Coast coach Tim Ryan said. “They just tightened up the defense. We were able to get some easy baskets in transition.”

 

Gulf Coast won its third straight to improve to 5-4. East Central is now 5-3. It was the first game in the new arena with students on campus, and they made their presence known with the Band of Gold, cheerleaders and Perkettes pumping up the volume.

 

The Bulldogs scored 14 straight points early in the first half to take a 20-9 lead, sparked by back-to-back 3-pointers by Demarcus Powe (Fr., Meridian/Meridian). Donovan Sanders (So., Walls/Lake Cormorant) had a pair of shots in the lane late in the run, and he would finish with a team-high 17. Powe wound up with 14.

 

Gulf Coast trailed 54-49 with 12:05 to play when JaVon Anderson (So., Columbia S.C./Ridge View) nailed a 3-pointer. It started a seven-point streak punctuated by a ridiculous alley-oop finish by Darius Dawson (So., Sumter S.C./West Florence).

 

“We were able to get what we wanted on the offensive side,” Ryan said. “We thought we could do that coming in. the problem is we didn’t do what we wanted to do on the defensive side. We held their main guy 10 points under his average (Scootah Joseph), but they had some other guys that really hurt us.”

 

East Central would go up 74-67 before Gulf Coast got its defense cranked up. Powe had a 3-pointer and a drive in the 11-0 run, and Dawson had a dunk and a layup.

 

“Powe shot it really well tonight,” Ryan said. “He’s been shooting like that consistently now.”

 

Gulf Coast led 78-74 with 2 minutes to play, and the Bulldogs would have cruised to victory by making more free throws. They missed three in the final minute, but Dawson and Anderson made the last three for the final bulge.

 

Dawson was one of five Bulldogs in double-digits, finishing with 15. Anderson and Anthony Robinson (Fr., Long Beach/Long Beach) had 12 points.

 

Gulf Coast is on the road Saturday for another non-conference matchup. The Bulldogs will play Hinds in Utica at 2 p.m.

 

For more information on MGCCC’s 11 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.