Men’s Basketball clinches playoff spot

PERKINSTON — Despite a 75-67 loss to Southwest Mississippi on Sophomore Night at Dantzler Arena, Mississippi Gulf Coast clinched a berth in the NJCAA Region 23 men's basketball tournament.

Jabbari Barry (So., Lake Charles, La./Barbe) led Gulf Coast with 13 points, and Thomas Tangle (So., Standing Pine/Choctaw Central), Kaue Kalinowski (So., Curitiba, Brazil/Divine Savior) and Matthew Hinton (Fr., Atlanta, Ga./Dutchtown) had 10 each.

Other results around the league let the Bulldogs (16-11, 6-7 MACCC) start planning for the playoffs. Their hopes of hosting a first-round game remain alive. A win in the regular-season finale at Copiah-Lincoln on Monday will mean they host a game at Dantzler Arena on March 6. They are tied with East Central for eighth and hold the tiebreaker advantage over the Warriors.

The top 11 teams in the conference qualify for the postseason, with the fifth through eighth seeds hosting first-round games in the Region 23 Tournament on March 6.

Southwest is now 16-12, 7-6.

Gulf Coast fell behind 48-43 with 13:52 left after a 9-0 run by the Bears. The Bulldogs got a pair of 3-pointers from Barry and a powerful dunk by Hinton to go back ahead by three.

Southwest scored the next seven points, and the Bulldogs could never get back even.

Gulf Coast plays in Wesson on Monday in a game scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.

For more information on MGCCC's 12 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.