Bobcats continue to surprise, take nailbiter over Clayton
At 8:00 pm on Martin Luther King Day, GCSU earned a hard-fought 68-67 win over the Clayton State Lakers at the Centennial Center.
The Bobcats came out strong against CSU and held a solid lead in the opening minutes, but the Lakers then stepped up their game and caught back up with GCSU toward the half.
Junior guard Jake Rios made all six field goals, including both of the three-point field goals that he took, giving him a shooting average of 100% during the first half and putting 12 points on the board for the Bobcats.
“My team did a great job of getting me the ball in order to convert scoring opportunities. Even though we missed a lot of shots, the team is being very unselfish and is coming together,” Rios said.
Junior guard Graham Martin was 4-of-6 on field goals, including 2-of-3 three-point shots. Senior guard Shaun Keaton was 2-of-4 on field goals, 1-of-3 on three-point field goals, and made all three of his free throws. Freshman Ryan Aquino and Sophomore Josh Hurst both made 2 field goals. The Georgia College Bobcats lead at the end of the first half 36-34. GCSU’s shooting average stood at 45.2% for field goals, 31.3% for 3 point field goals, and 100% for free throws.
The Bobcats returned in the second period to play an incredibly close and suspenseful game. Near the end of the game when the score was 68-66 in favor of the Bobcats, Trey Gross of CSU was fouled on a layup attempt. He made the first free throw, making the score 68-67, but then missed the second free throw. Roland and Clayton were both able to make two huge defensive plays to prevent the Lakers to score any more goals.
Georgia College held on to preserve a 68-67 win. Rios finished the game with 14 points on 8-of-10 from the floor, including 3-of-4 threes. Martin also finished with 14 points on 4-of-8 on field goals, including 3-of-5 on threes and 3-of-4 free throws.
“Coming out with a victory is the bottom line. Offense is our biggest weakness. And because we have a smaller lineup we need to take advantage of speed and spreading the floor,” Martin said.
The next home game for GCSU is Saturday, Jan. 24 at 4 p.m. at Centennial Center against the University of South Carolina at Aiken.
“We will work hard every day and practice constantly to in order to execute the fundamentals and help each other out,” Head Coach Terry Sellers said. “There is a lot of room for improvement and there is still a lot of basketball to be played.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Jan 23 2009. 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
