COCHRAN, Ga. - With 15 minutes left in Saturday's game here against Middle Georgia State, Faulkner appeared dead in the water. The Eagles had made just 2-of-20 long-range shots and was behind 51-38 to the Knights, who had beaten Scott Sanderson's team by seven points at Tine Davis Gymnasium just two weeks ago.

Enter sophomore backup guard Marquis Grays.

The 5-9 native of Huntsville, Ala., held scoreless in the first half, buried six 3-pointers in the decisive final 15 minutes as a furious Faulkner rally resulted in a huge 89-80 Southern States Athletic Conference victory at Morris Gymnasium.

"I put on the chalkboard that there would be a tough spot in the game that we'd have to battle through adversity, and I reminded our guys of that when we were down 13," said Sanderson, whose team improved to 9-7 in the league and 15-13 overall with the improbably victory. "Our guys responded. We hadn't shot it well for awhile from outside, and Marquis kind of took the lid off the basket for us. It's a great win for our team. Not so much that we won, but how we won."

After the timeout with 15 minutes left, Faulkner scored the next 15 points behind Grays' trio of 3-pointers. Nick Drake also connected on a pair of shots from behind the arc and the Eagles remarkably never trailed again. The lead was 70-62 after after a Di'mar Hill basket with 5:32 to play and, after the Knights trimmed the margin to five with 1:32 to play, up stepped Logan Jozwiak. Having missed his only other three shots in the game - all 3-point tries - the sophomore lefty buried one from the corner to push the advantage back to eight. The shot quieted the crowd and Middle Georgia never got closer than six the rest of the way.

"As big as all the shots Marquis made, the biggest of the game might have been the one Logan knocked down," Sanderson said. "We wouldn't have come back had Marquis not gotten us back in the game, and the last minute might have been different had Logan not made that one."

Faulkner made eight free throws in 10 attempts in the last minute to salt things away. The threesome of Hill, Monta Sanford and Grays combined for 68 of Faulkner's points, with Hill leading the way with 24, followed by Sanford's 23 and Grays' 21. Hill, who fouled out with 3:09 left, added a team-high 11 rebounds and five assists, while Sanford yanked down seven boards for the Eagles, who were out rebounded by the taller Knights 44-39.

Middle Georgia (14-8 overall, 11-6 SSAC), which lost its third game in a row, got 23 points and 11 rebounds from Kieston Standfield. The 6-7 forward only scored six points in the second half, however. Jacob Gibson had 13 points and David Bivins 10 for the Knights. After shooting 34 percent in the first half, the Eagles blistered the nets at a 63-percent clip in the second.

"I hate to say this, but when you're hitting shots a lot of times it picks up your intensity on the defensive end," Sanderson said. "I think that happened today."

Sanford's nine early points helped the Eagles build an 11-4 advantage four minutes in, but Standfield was too much inside as the Knights grabbed control. He scored the first 15 points for Middle Georgia as it flipped the seven-point deficit into as much as a five-point lead in the opening 20 minutes. Faulkner hung tough, despite making just 1-of-14 first-half attempts from behind arc, and trailed only 33-29 at the break. In the second half, the Eagles made nine of their 15 3-point tries, setting the stage for the comeback.

The Eagles welcome SSAC foe Coastal Georgia to Tine Davis Gymnasium Thursday night at 7:30.