Bobcats rebound from 0-3 PBC start

Before facing a surprising University of North Carolina Pembroke squad on Jan. 13, the GCSU men’s basketball team hoped to end a three game conference-losing streak.
Despite a 4-12 overall record, the Braves of UNC Pembroke have a 3-2 record in the Peach Belt Conference (PBC). The Bobcats started the game shooting well. The team shot 51 percent (23-of-45) from the floor to claim its first PBC victory of the season winning 66-37.
The Bobcats continued their winning ways against Georgia Southwestern beating the hurricanes 68-53 in the Centennial Cenetr last Wednesday.
In spite of this past week’s success, the Bobcats have struggled in conference games. Over the holidays, the Bobcats lost a battle with league powerhouse Armstrong Atlantic on a last second jumper. The development of sophomore Shaun Keaton continued as the guard scored 24 points off the bench.
“Shaun is doing a great job,” Head Coach Terry Sellers said. “He has chemistry with his teammates allowing him to adapt to our system.”
The Bobcats next game was a double digit loss at Lander. Lack of rhythm and offensive execution proved to be the weaknesses for GCSU.
Sellers said the Lander game was a struggle on both ends of the floor. The opposing guards combined for 46 of Lander’s 67 points.
The Bobcats low 33 percent shooting could not offset the defensive breakdowns.
“Right now we have to take one game at a time and focus on improvement,” Sellers said. “We need more commitment on every possession.”
Unfortunately for GCSU, the shots continued to slide off the iron in a third straight conference loss at home to Augusta State.
The Bobcats had plenty of home crowd support as the student section was slammed with body paint and enthusiasm.
The game was tied early after junior Levert Carter exploded for a crowd pleasing baseline dunk. Despite intensity and effort, the Bobcats could not establish their offense.
GCSU cut the lead down to four with help from two late steals by Keaton. Augusta State led 40-35 at the half.
The second half was more of the same as the Bobcats could not stop ASU. The deficit grew to 13 points.
Senior Aaron Gibbs tried to create some momentum, but his 3-point stroke was not as sharp as usual. Gibbs only converted three of his multiple attempts in the second half.
While the ASU guards padded the lead, the Bobcats found no friendly bounces at the Centennial Center. Sellers said that even with our desire to succeed, sometimes things just do not work out.
The home team could not find the right lineup to counteract the athleticism of ASU in the 83-70 loss. “We just weren’t hitting shots and had too many mental mistakes,” junior Aaron Clark said.
Against Lander and Augusta State the Bobcats shot less than 20 percent from 3-point range. Sellers said the guys did not shoot well enough to compete against a high caliber team.
“I’m confident we’ll pull out of this shooting slump,” Sellers said.
The Bobcats need to stay focused as the tough Peach Belt schedule continues. The next home game is Saturday Jan. 27 at 4 p.m. against USC Upstate.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 19 2007. 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