Beeville, Tx- Coastal Bend College men's basketball program tip-offed their season opener at home on Monday night. CBC hosted Strength 'N Motion in the Peter S. Marecek Physical Fitness Center.
The Cougars got off on the wrong foot to begin the game versus SNM. They fell behind early but able to claw their way into the lead. Coastal Bend took a 44-40 lead at intermission.
During the second half of play, the Cougars had a difficult time maintaining their small lead to Strength 'N Motion. After trading baskets for a good portion of the half, SNM pulled away with a nine point lead with less than 5 minutes in regulation.
The Cougars were able to capitalize on a few turnovers, turning them into points on the offensive end to help get them back in the game. Trailing, 81-74 with a minute remaining, Robert Gil hit a jumper to trim the deficit.
After Strength 'N Motion split a pair of free throws, CBC raced down the court to find Robert Chapman deep in the corner as he rattled home a three pointer to make it a 79-82 ball game. On the ensuing in-bound, the Cougars forced a turnover as Gil converted a layup through traffic with 40 seconds left on the clock.
SNM missed a pair of free throws and ended up fouling Gil, who sunk both attempts at the charity stripe, reclaiming the lead, 83-82. The Cougars contested a shot on the block and were called for a shooting foul. Strength 'N Motion knotted up the game at 83 a piece, splitting the pair at the foul line.
The Cougar retained possesion with seven seconds left and were able to get a lay up off in the paint, but the ball failed to fall through the net as time expired. The contest headed to overtime, 83-83.
Coastal Bend found themselves trailing, 86-87 after Gil made two free throws with just over two and a half minutes left in overtime. As the end of overtime dwindled down, both ball clubs couldn't convert on their respective possessions.
Gil was able to get back to the foul line where he tied the game up at 87 by splitting his free throw attempts. Strength 'N Motion went down and regained the the lead with a putback basket. With 20 seconds left, CBC's Faybeyon Shelton scored from the post to knot the game up, 89-89 with five seconds left.
SNM dashed up the court and scored the game winning layup with half a second left on the clock. A three quarter court heave fell short, giving the Cougars a 89-91 loss in overtime.
Point Guard, Robert Gil lead the team in scoring with 20 points and three assists. Lonzo Rand netted in 19 points to assist the Cougars in scoring. Sophomore Guard, Jaylen Williams added 12 points and two steals to contribute to Coastal Bend. Sophomore Forward, Faybeyon Shelton scored 17 points off the bench for CBC while collecting six rebounds for his performance.