‘Cats cruise against USC-Aiken

On a weekend when 550 students from Georgia College & State University moved into the brand-new Foundation and Parkhurst Halls, both of the school’s basketball teams were looking to move up in the Peach Belt Conference standings.

While neither team did that, both the Bobcats and Lady Bobcats earned hard-fought wins over USC-Aiken in two close contests, with the women winning 56-52, while the men held off a late Pacer rally to take home a 68-64 victory.

Women

The game got off to a fast start for GC&SU, as the Lady Bobcats led 8-4 with 15 minutes left in the first half. But it would be a see-saw battle throughout the rest of the period, as the Lady Pacers reeled off the next four points to tie the game at 8-8. Then USC-Aiken took a 13-12 lead on a jumper by Allison Nold with 7:48 left in the first half. USCA would increase that lead to 17-12 after another jumper by Nold with 6:25 to go. But a jumper by GC&SU’s Breane Haggard with three seconds left would send both teams into intermission tied at 21-21.

The second half opened with USC-Aiken (15-11, 6-9 PBC) grabbing a 28-24 lead with 15:50 to go in the contest. But GC&SU (12-11, 6-9) would outscore USCA 9-0 within the next two minutes to take a 33-28 lead with 14:07 left to play. The Lady Bobcats would lead by as many as nine points on several occasions, the last time at 46-37 with 6:13 to go. But the Lady Pacers held GC&SU scoreless for almost five minutes to take a 49-47 lead with 1:32 remaining. Dalana Watson would get the lead back for good with a trey. GC&SU also converted its free throws when it counted, as the Lady Bobcats converted nine of 16 shots from the line in the second half to seal the victory.

Andrea Lee led all scorers with 16 points, while Watson added 10 points and seven rebounds. Alicia Porter also contributed to the Lady Bobcats with 10 rebounds.

Men

The game started with USC-Aiken (3-20, 2-13 PBC) gaining a 2-0 lead on a Todd Williams lay-up. Then Rodney Keener would give GC&SU (13-9, 9-5) its first lead of the night with a jumper of his own. The Bobcats would build a 28-17 lead with 3:37 left before the Pacers went on an 11-3 run to end the first half. GC&SU led 31-28 at halftime.

In the second half, GC&SU would take a 44-33 lead with under 16 minutes to go in the game, the ‘Cats then increased their lead to 58-40 after Tylan Gatling made three free throws with 8:11 to play.
The Pacers would then trim the gap to 62-60 before the Bobcats responded with four unanswered points to take a 66-60 advantage with 1:47 to go. However, USC-Aiken would not go away, as the Pacers trimmed the margin to 66-64 with 34 seconds left. But the Bobcats would seal the win thanks to free throws by Keener and Darryl Ruffus.

Ruffus led all scorers with 19 points, followed by Keener with 18 points, and Gatling added 17 points. GC&SU attempted only four three-point shots on the night, but made them when they counted, as the Bobcats went 3 of 4 from beyond the arc for 75 percent. GC&SU also shot 42 percent from the field for the game, including 12 of 21 in the second half.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 21 2003. 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