‘Cats split against Lander

Women

The Georgia College & State University women’s basketball team wasted no time bouncing back from its first loss of the season, surviving a late rally by Lander University to win their first Peach Belt Conference game 84-75 last Saturday night at the Centennial Center.
Meanwhile, the Bobcats committed 21 turnovers in a 68-64 loss to the visiting Bearcats, who will look for a new head coach after Chipper Bagwell announced the day before he would resign effective at season’s end.
The GC&SU women (12-1, 1-1 PBC) scored the game’s first four points before Lander (9-3, 1-1) responded with five unanswered points of its own to take a 5-4 lead with 17:17 left in the first half. The Lady Bobcats then increased the lead to 19-8 thanks to a jumper by Rachael Jackson with 10:34 remaining.
GC&SU then built its largest lead of the half at 35-19 after a jumper by Latia Love, who finished the game with 17 points. A jumper by Breane Haggard before time expired gave the Lady Bobcats a 45-30 lead at halftime.
A 20-9 run during the first 6:17 of the second half narrowed the GC&SU lead to 54-50 with 13:43 left in regulation. But the Bearcats couldn’t get any closer, as the Lady Bobcats again increased the lead to double-digits at 70-59 after a 16-9 spurt over the next 10:37, which was capped with a trey by Love with 4:06 remaining.
The Bearcats narrowed the deficit to single-digits on numerous occasions down the stretch. However, an excellent showing at the free throw line in the second half (15/18 — 83%) helped seal the victory for GC&SU. Overall, the Lady Bobcats made 17 of 20 free throws for 85 percent.
“It was a tough game, it was up and down the floor, it was a very physical game, and both teams really played hard, played their hearts out,” said Carrick. “There was a period of time in the second half where we went absolutely cold shooting.”
The GC&SU women now face their toughest stretch of the season, as the Lady Bobcats travel to Kennesaw State this Wednesday, followed by a trip to UNC-Pembroke on Saturday, and a visit to second-ranked North Florida on Jan. 21 before returning home on Jan. 24 to face USC-Aiken.
“There’s no night off (in the PBC),” Carrick said. “If we have a night off, we’re going to get spanked.”

Men

The Bearcats (4-8, 1-1 PBC) scored the game’s first points on two free throws by Kenneth Nether, who shared game-high scoring honors with fellow teammate Emanuel Hodrea and GC&SU sophomore Cooper Sellers.
Then the Bobcats (3-10, 0-2) got a trey by Sellers, followed by a Kevin Benn jumper to give themselves a 5-2 lead less than two minutes into the game. A dunk by Tylan Gatling gave the Bobcats their last lead of the first half at 7-6 with 16:52 to go.
Lander then outscored GC&SU 17-5 over a span of almost nine minutes to take a 23-12 lead with less than eight minutes left in the half. But the Bobcats wouldn’t give up, as they went on a 17-8 run the rest of the way to trail 31-29 at halftime.
The GC&SU men started off hot in the second half, as the Bobcats scored six unanswered points to lead 35-31 with 18:06 left to play. Two free throws by Benn, who finished the game with eight points, gave GC&SU its largest lead of the game at 37-31 with 16:39 remaining. But an 8-2 run by Lander during the next 2:36 tied the score at 41-41 with 14:03 to go.
Two free throws by Travis Nesby with 10:09 remaining gave the GC&SU men what would be prove to be their last lead of the contest, as the Bearcats took over down the stretch, building a 52-46 lead with 6:50 left.
But the Bobcats wouldn’t go away, as they rallied to narrow the deficit to 59-57 on a jumper by Brannon Asbury with 3:20 to go in the game. A three-pointer by Gatling, who had 14 points on the evening made the score 65-64 with five seconds left. But GC&SU couldn’t finish the job, as Lander added three free throws for the final 68-64 margin of victory.
“We just shot ourselves in the foot, (with) way too many turnovers,” Head Basketball Coach Terry Sellers said. “You can’t expect to win, especially close games, when you turn the ball over that many times. I thought we improved tonight, but we’ve got to try to get better.”
GC&SU will host the University of South Carolina-Aiken on Jan. 24.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 16 2004. 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