No. 21 Bobcats still perfect

The GCSU men’s basketball team has climbed to No. 21 in the national rankings after four straight wins to start the season.

The Bobcats went to 4-0 in Tennessee this past Saturday as they defeated Tusculum College in the Dick Campbell Memorial Classic at Carson-Newman College.

The lead changed hands continuously throughout the first half, and ended with the Bobcats leading 33-31.

The squad’s shooting average for the first half was 52 percent on field goals, 33.3 percent on 3-point field goals and 62.5 percent on free throws.

In the second half, both teams remained aggressive and continued to battle back and forth. With 15:40 remaining in the game, the Pioneers hit a three to earn the lead over the Bobcats, 41-39.

Shortly after, senior guard Graham Martin was fouled and was able to make both free throws to tie the game. The Bobcats were then able to take the lead when junior forward Josh Hurst recovered a rebound and nailed a 3-pointer to set the score at 44-41.

From there, GCSU ran away in the remainder of the game for a 76-59 victory.

This past Friday, the Bobcats faced Carson-Newman College in Tennessee.

GCSU struck first and controlled the pace of the first half to lead the Eagles 43-33 at halftime.

The Bobcats kept Carson-Newman at arm’s length for the entire second half and defeated the Eagles 82-70 to go to 3-0.

The leading scorer for GCSU was senior point guard Ty Rowland, who scored 19 points for the Bobcats. Jake Rios added 14 points for the Bobcats.

The team looks to improve on their 4-0 record this Thursday at home against Carver Bible College at 7:30 p.m.

“We’ve got to do a better job of playing defense,” head coach Terry Sellers said. “We’re going to get back in here and continue to work and try to improve on all phases of the game.”

The Bobcats’ were at home Nov. 21 to face the University of West Georgia College.

GCSU jumped on the Wolves early and controlled the first half. The Bobcats secured an 11-point lead over the Wolves when senior guard Jake Rios scored a layup with less than two seconds left on the clock in the first half, setting the score at 44-33 in favor of the Bobcats.

The Bobcats shooting average for the first half was 50 percent for field goals, 53.3 percent for 3-pointers and 40 percent for free throws.

However, West Georgia clawed back in the second half, and with less than two minutes remaining, the Wolves took the lead for the first time in the game when they hit a 3-pointer to lead the Bobcats 76-74.

With just 40 seconds remaining, GCSU secured the lead once more when Martin made a jumper to set the score at 78-76.

Rowland was fouled and drained both of his free throws with under 10 seconds to play to secure an 80-76 Bobcat victory.

The high scorer for the Bobcats was Rios, with 24 points on eight field goals, including six 3-pointers and a pair of free throws.

“I think we should have blown them out,” Rios said. “It was better towards the last couple minutes, but we’re still not there yet.”

Junior forward Reece Wiedeman seconded Rios’ effort by tacking on 14 points for the Bobcats.

“We got stops when we needed to at the end,” Wiedeman said. “We played good defense and hit some big shots.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Dec 4 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