Basketball splits Mercer exhibition

GCSU fans were able to get a preview of the 2010-11 Bobcat basketball teams as they played in an exhibition against Division I Mercer Nov. 4 in Macon.

The women’s basketball team was first to compete, and the Lady Bobcats showed off their hard work as they defeated Mercer 67-57.

There were many new assets to the Lady Bobcats including sophomore transfer guard Karisma Boykin, who scored 20 points, putting herself as the lead scorer in the game. Boykin also had eight boards, two steals and an assist.

Senior guard Chimere Jordan was right behind Boykin, adding 18 points to the board, nine rebounds and five steals.

Shining with her defensive game was senior forward Dominque Huffin, as she had a double-double with 15 points and 10 boards, three assists, two steals and two blocks. Junior forward Tammeisha Law also added to the Bobcats’ intensity by putting 10 more points on the board and snatching seven rebounds.

Late in the second half, Mercer made a tough effort to come back when freshman Rebecca Clanton made a three-pointer to make the score 56-53 in favor of the Bobcats. GCSU proved resilient though, calling a timeout to slow down the momentum and out-scoring the Bears 7-2 until the end of the game.

“Toward the end of the game we had to meet their intensity and then we topped it,” Huffin said. “We had defensive stops and picked our energy up coming together, and that was when I knew that no one could have stopped us.”

Head Coach Maurice Smith was very proud of how the teams started out their season as he received his first win as head coach for the Lady Bobcats.

“We are going to be tested on the road and the worst thing that we can do is not come ready to play,” Smith said. “By setting the tone with the effort, we can work on the x’s and o’s, but if we are lacking on the effort and hard work we are only beating ourselves.”

GCSU out-shot Mercer 23-of-69 from the floor and 19-of-30 from the free-throw line while Mercer was 25-of-77 from the floor and 4-of-7 from the free throw line..

During the men’s game, it was a fierce competition as the Bobcats and Bears battled, ending in a loss for the Bobcats 85-58.

Even though the Bobcats lost, they were able to see some areas of their game that need improvement and with over half of the players being new to the team, they are going to focus on playing together, which will help them succeed in their upcoming season.

“I think our first game went a lot worse than we were all prepared for,” sophomore guard Ryan Legates said. “Although, I think our season is going to turn out to be a success when we start getting used to playing with each other and building chemistry; we need to work on teamwork and executing our offense better before our next game in order to win.”

Leading the way for the Bobcats was transfer junior guard Jared Holmes, who scored 17 points, adding four boards and three assists while junior forward Ryan Aquino and Legates added 13 points each.

Another player that contributed to putting points up on the board was senior forward Reece Wiedeman with 10 points.

“We are nowhere close to reaching our potential as a team,” injured senior Andre Mikell said. “We need to work on being a team and playing together and then our game will come.”

The Bobcats out-shot the Bears 41 percent (9-22) to 36 (11-of-31) in the first half, but they lost the game due to turnovers. In fact, the Bears beat the Bobcats by getting 18 points off turnovers throughout the game, which allowed them to gain the lead.

“Our game and level of intensity was not where it needed to be,” Aquino said. “We have to start playing better defense and executing our plays better on offense.”

The Lady Bobcats will begin their regular season on the road against Anderson University Nov. 12 at 7 p.m., and the men will be hosting NAIA Carver Bible College Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. for their season opener.

Posted by Kristi Rodriguez on Nov 11 2010. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.