Bobcats ringing in the new season

Georgia College and State University’s basketball teams opened their seasons two different ways.

The Bobcats had a tough first game against Alabama-Huntsville in the first round of the 2001 Coca-Cola/ Shoney’s Inn Classic at Myrick Hall. GC&SU ended up losing to Alabama-Huntsville 76-75.

At halftime the Bobcats led 41-38, but a dismal 31% (11-35) from the floor in the second half was not enough to hold off Alabama-Huntsville. Even though the Bobcats came up empty handed, they looked very good for the start of the season.

After taking a year off, Derrick Nicholson led the team in scoring with 19 points. Junior forward Rodney Keener, playing in his first game for GC&SU, added 14 points in the losing effort. Fred McGinnis, who scored a game high 25 points, led Alabama-Huntsville.

In the Bobcats’ second game on Nov. 17, things quickly turned around. GC&SU’s next opponent was the University of Montevallo. After Montevallo jumped out to an early 10-3 lead, the Bobcats started to heat things up. Just a few minutes later the Bobcats were able to tie the game up at 10-10. After, trailing at halftime 50-49, the Bobcats came out red-hot and finally took the lead. After already having an 8-2 second half run of their own, the Bobcats later stretched their lead out to twelve points. Montevallo would get no closer than six points the rest of the way. The Bobcats got their first win of the season 95-85.

Keener had a great game – he scored a game-high 31 points, connecting on six three-pointers. He went 6-7 from behind the arc as the Bobcats as a team went 12-22 (54.5%) from three-point range for the game. The Bobcats were able to shoot 48% from the field after making 30-63 shots from the floor. GC&SU helped itself at the free throw line by hitting 88.5% (23-26) of their freebee’s. Also, Nicholson played well again as the he added 21 points to GC&SU’s score. Joseph Harris was also able to reach double-figures with 15 points. Undrae Lilly led Montevallo with 25 points, but there was just too much pressure from GC&SU.

The third game of this young season was much like the second as GC&SU won their home opener. The fans in attendance saw the Bobcats destroy Paine College. The score was 30-26 when GC&SU put the game on the back burner; the Bobcats were able to put together a 14-0 run to close out the first half with a big lead of 44-26.

GC&SU’s hot hand continued as the team shot 50% (15-30) from the floor in the first half, including 6-12 from three-point range. The second half was much like the first as the Bobcats hit 5 of 8 three-pointers. GC&SU (2-1) won easily 88-72.

Leading the way again for GC&SU were Keener and Nicholson, who scored 17 points apiece. Keener and Nicholson both cleaned up the rebounds as they had 6 and 8 respectively. In addition, Joseph Harris also reached double figures with 12 points for the Bobcats, who were playing without the injured forward Chris Nelson. Colin Jamerson led Paine (1-2) with 19 points, while Willie Adkinson added 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The Bobcats (3-1) never trailed in the game, and they were able to hold on for their third straight victory 63-59 over Albany State. Johnnie Stafford hit a pair of clutch free throws with 2.5 seconds remaining to ice the game. For the Bobcats, the winning streak is up to three and does not seemed to be stopping anytime soon.

The Bobcats could never really pull over from the Golden Rams (0-2) who forced 17 GC&SU turnovers. Stafford led GC&SU with a season high 16 points and dished out five assists. Daryl added 11 points, while Harris scored 10 points for the Bobcats. Grady Caldwell led Albany State with 15 points.

LADY BOBCATS

The Lady Bobcats started this season off the wrong way if they wanted to repeat last year’s successful season. This young GC&SU basketball team opened with a pair of losses at the University of West Florida Tournament over the weekend. GC&SU (0-2) opened the tournament on Nov. 16 with a heartbreaking 95-88 overtime loss to West Florida. The Lady Bobcats then went up against Ouachita Baptist on Saturday and lost 83-67.

The Lady Bobcats rallied from an eleven-point deficit in the second half and took a 77-74 lead with 32 seconds to play on a Betsy Foy three pointer. Not to be outdone by GC&SU’S Foy, West Florida’s Brooke Crawford answered with her own three-pointer with just 18 seconds left in regulation, sending the game into overtime. In overtime West Florida was just too much for the Lady Bobcats as GC&SU ended up losing the game.

For the Lady Bobcats, Dalana Watson led the team with 20 points and a career high 14 rebounds for her first career double-double. Foy played really well, adding 19 points, and sophomore guard Breane Haggard added a career high 17 points in the losing effort. Kelly Barret led UWF with 28 points.

The second game of their season went much like the first, ending with another loss. GC&SU overcame a 19 point first half deficit and was leading by four midway through the second half when Ouachita Baptist answered with an 11-0 run and never looked back in the 83-67 victory over the Lady Bobcats.

Watson again led GC&SU with 22 points and 7 rebounds, while Andrea Lee added 12 points in the loss. Crystal Allen paced the Tigers with 20 points, while her team shot a combined 52% (11-21) from three-point range. The Lady Bobcats could not find their range all day, and as a team they could only manage to shoot 37% from the field.

In their third game of the season the Lady Bobcats blew away Saint Leo, 77-56.

As the Lady Bobcats earned their first victory of the season in the Horton Homes Classic at the Centennial Center.
In the first half of the game both teams had trouble shootin-, GC&SU posted only 23.5% (8-34), and Saint Leo managed 35.1% (10-28) of the floor. Going into the first half with a lead (27-26), the Lady Bobcats (1-2) needed to step up their game. GC&SU started the second half with a 10-0 run and stretched out their lead to eleven. The Lady Bobcats finally put the game out of reach with 15-0 run, making the score 52-32 with just a little over 10 minutes left to play. In all, GC&SU shot 51.5% from the floor in the second half, compared to Saint Leo’s horrible 23.1%.

Foy posted her first double-double of the season with 20 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Lady Bobcats. Watson just missed another double-double by 1 rebound, totaling 14 points and 9 rebounds. While point guard Larkin Cleaveland scored 8 points and had 8 sweet assists. For Saint Leo, forward Ebony Winn led the team with 12 points and 19 rebounds.

The Lady Bobcats (2-2) started a winning streak after beating the University of Tampa Nov. 21st 84-75.

After opening the game on a 13-2 run, GC&SU never trailed for the easy victory. The Lady Bobcats were on fire all night from the three-point line, connecting on 53% (10-19) of their three’s and shooting a solid 87% (20-23) from the free throw line. The only downswing to the whole game was that GC&SU committed 28 turnovers, but on the upswing, the Lady Bobcats out-rebounded Tampa (1-2) 50-43.

Foy notched her second straight double-double and led GC&SU with a career high 28 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. She also had 5 assists and stole the ball 4 times for GC&SU. In addition to Foy, three other Lady Bobcats reached double figures in scoring. Watson again was a solid presence in the paint as she had 17 points and managed to get 6 rebounds. Cleaveland scored a career high 14 points and was able to dish out 4 assists. Also, Haggard played well again as she scored 12 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. In addition, she also managed to steal the ball twice while having 2 assists in the victory.

Juanita McClinton led Tampa with 22 points and 5 steals, while her teammate Yushanda Morse posted a double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds.

Both the Bobcats and Lady Bobcats are back in action Saturday, December 1 to open the Peach Belt Conference schedule against Francis Marion University. The games are home games, here in Milledgeville, and with both of these teams on fire, the Peach Belt Conference needs to look out for GC&SU.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 30 2001. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry