Bulldogs knock off No. 11 Jones

Mississippi Gulf Coast erased a six-point deficit in the second overtime without its leading scorer to snap No. 11 Jones' 27-game home win streak Monday in Ellisville.

The Bulldogs won 116-114 to extend their win streak to 10 games without Duran Parish, the MACCC's top scorer, who fouled out with 1:29 to play in the first overtime.

"It says a lot about our team," Gulf Coast coach Owen Miller said. "We've got a lot of good players, and we've got guys that are stepping up. We've got some experience and yeah, I think it speaks a lot for our team that you know you lose your guy, the guy that's gonna have the ball in his hand 80 percent of the time, and you find a way on the road to get it done in double overtime." 

Parish left with 29 points after having made his last 10 free throws, including three with 10 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 89. Jaron LeMelle (Fr., Birmingham, Ala./Langston Hughes) had a 20-point, 16-rebound double-double off the bench. 

Za'Kariyea Hamilton (So., Jackson/Clinton) had 16 points after making 10-of-11 free throws, and three Bulldogs had 10 points: King George (Fr., Olive Branch/Olive Branch), Kelinee Stone (Fr., Baton Rouge, La./Woodlawn) and Zakariyya Dwight (Fr., Cordele, Ga./Crisp County). 

Gulf Coast (11-1) got a break near the end of the first extra session when an inadvertent whistle gave them the ball with 16 seconds left. The Bulldogs weren't able to get a shot off, and the second OT started tied at 101.

Jones (10-3) led 111-105 with 3:15 left before Stone's tip-in came after a pair of Gulf Coast offensive boards. The Bulldogs had 22 offensive rebounds and outrebounded the Bobcats 56-51. Hamilton had a three-point play to make it 111-110, and Cledarius Ross (Fr., Pascagoula/Pascagoula) answered a Jones bucket with two free throws with 1:15 left.

LeMelle rebounded a Jones miss with 14 seconds left, and the Bobcats fouled Hamilton near halfcourt with 5.8 seconds left. He made both freebies, and the Bobcats missed a layup at the buzzer.

"We had some guys really step up," Miller said. "We had six guys in double figures. I thought they got tired. They don't play a lot of guys, and even when we got down six in that second overtime, we were really attacking on the offensive glass. They had a hard time staying in front of us there at the end."

Jones had four players foul out to Gulf Coast's two. Four Bobcats played 45-plus minutes, while no Bulldog played more than Parish's 39. Gulf Coast shot 81 percent from the free-throw line, making nine more than Jones, which shot 69 percent.

Gulf Coast will close out its 2025 schedule at Utica on Friday. Tipoff against Hinds is set for 3 p.m. The game will be streamed at https://hindsccsports.net/channel-1/.

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