Bobcats drop finale; third seed in PBC

    A tough home loss will mark the end of games at the Centennial Center for  Bobcat basketball seniors Aaron Clark, LeVert Carter and Jay Warden.  The University of South Carolina at Aiken came to Milledgeville ranked No. 1 in the Peach Belt Conference. The Bobcats, ranked No. 3, looked to pull off an upset before heading into the conference tournament.
    Before the game, head coach Terry Sellers told his team this game was going to be an opportunity for the Bobcats to prove themselves as a true contender for the PBC title.
    “We had to play for forty minutes, and we had to play well for forty minutes,” said Sellers.  “It was a good challenge for us, a fun challenge and we’ve been playing well at home all year and they were coming into our house, and if we played well for forty minutes, we were capable of getting the job done.”
    GCSU started out hot, opening the game with an 11-4 run.  The energy of the largest crowd all season was evident as the Centennial Center broke out into thunderous applause and yells after every GCSU score.
    “It was a fantastic crowd,” Sellers said, “as good a crowd as we’ve probably ever had since I’ve been here so it just made it a lot of fun for everybody.”
    The Bobcats took a one point lead into halftime.  Sellers told his team to continue playing with the energy they had shown in the first half and to have a sense of urgency during every possession.
    Aiken proved to be too much for GCSU, starting off the second half with a 22-4 run.  The Bobcats clawed their way back into the game with some clutch shooting by Warden, a forward,  who hit three big three’s to give the Bobcats hope.
    “I was thinking in my head I just didn’t want to lose the last home game,” Warden said. “I was thinking, talking to myself saying I don’t want to let us lose but I was just trying to stay calm.”
    Clark, the Bobcats’ center, led the team with 20 points.  Warden and sophomore guard Graham Martin followed with 14.  The combined 48 point effort was not enough as Aiken went on to win  72-67.
    Sellers helped his team get over the tough loss by reminding them that every team’s season starts over in the PBC tournament.
    “From here on out, it’s a brand new season, that’s what Coach wrote on the wall in there,” said Warden.  “He said 0-0, new season, new start.  I mean, he even got us new practice jerseys.”
    GCSU’s next game will be in the Peach Belt Conference tournament against Columbus State University, 9-11 in the PBC, March 7, at 3 p.m.  The Bobcats split with Columbus State during the regular season.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 7 2008. 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