Men’s season likely over after 74-68 loss to Montevallo in PBC quarterfinals

This season the Georgia College men’s basketball team just couldn’t come up with an answer to stop Montevallo. The Falcons made it three straight over the Bobcats on March 1, winning 74-68 in the quarterfinals of the Peach Belt Conference tournament and most likely ending Georgia College’s season at 16-10 overall.

The Bobcats have lost twice since being ranked No. 7 in the most recent region poll, in which the top eight teams are selected to the NCAA Tournament, and the chances of them getting an at large birth to the tournament are minscule at best.

Tuesday night’s matchup between the Bobcats and Falcons was largely a back-and-forth affair with both teams remaining deadlocked through the first portion of the opening half. Montevallo eventually gained a five-point lead, but the Bobcats tightened things back up, going into the locker room down 34-32. After the Falcons opened the second half with a three-pointer to extend their lead back to five points, senior forwards Josh Hurst and Reece Wiedeman made a three-pointer and a layup respectively to tie the game at 37-37 with 18:21 left.

Later in the half, the Bobcats got hot. Down 53-51 with 10:19 left, junior guard Jared Holmes hit a pair of free throws to tie the game. After four consecutive free throws from Hurst and Holmes, sophomore guard Ryan Legates hit a jumper, capping an 8-0 run and putting Georgia College ahead 59-53 with 8:35 left. As has been the case this year, however, the Falcons were just a step ahead, going on an 8-0 run of their own to retake the lead 61-59 with 5:01 left.

The game swung rapidly back and forth in the final minutes with Georgia College taking the lead one more time on a three-pointer from junior forward Ryan Aquino with 2:37 left to make the score 66-65. The lead was short-lived though, as Jervan Jackson hit a short jumper with 2:04 left, putting Montevallo out on top for good. Down 71-68, the Bobcats had one more chance, but when Aquino’s three-pointer just barely missed with 30 seconds left, they were forced to foul, and Montevallo knocked down the free throws to seal the victory.

Holmes led the Bobcats in scoring with a career-high 23 points, while Wiedeman, who had several clutch performances down the stretch of the regular season, scored 13. The Bobcats shot a solid 50 percent from the floor and managed to outrebound the Falcons as well. But the downfall proved to be the turnover category, as the Bobcats gave up the basketball 19 times, while only forcing 12 turnovers.

“It was certainly a tough loss,” Bobcats Head Coach Terry Sellers said. “The guys gave outstanding effort. We outrebounded them, and we shot the ball a lot better than last time. We just didn’t take good care of the basketball toward the end, and we were forced to foul, and they did what they needed to from the free throw line. But our effort was very good; you just have to say hats off to them.”

The season brought some big highlights for Georgia College, the biggest a six-game winning streak late in the regular season that included upset wins over then No. 7 Augusta State and over PBC West Champion Georgia Southwestern on the road. After losing their three leading scorers from a year ago, the Bobcats had to rely on several new faces.

“The guys really came together throughout the year,” Sellers said. “(Holmes) stepped in for us, and after (senior guard Andre Mikell) went down, we had to rely on three young guys — JP Davis, Royal Thomas and Aaron Robinson — had to grow up in a hurry and gave us the majority of our minutes at the point guard position.”

For Wiedeman, Hurst and Mikell, who suffered a season-ending knee injury early in the year, their careers came to an end. In four years, the trio won 80 games, an average of 20 a season.

“I hate it for Andre. He played so hard for three years behind Ty Rowland, and this was supposed to be his year, but he did great things for us,” Sellers said. “Josh has been so dependable for us on defense and rebounding and has always been someone we can count on as a leader and the model citizen we try to recruit here. And of course, Reece really came on strong for us.”

“It was the best year of my life,” Hurst said. “We played very hard as a team, and I got to learn a whole lot that helped me grow as a player and as a man. It was just an overall great experience.”

Sellers said that the future of the team is nothing short of bright.

“We had some young guys step up this year. They played a lot of close games this year in a tough conference, so they know what to expect,” he said. “It’s definitely something we can build on.”

Posted by Scotty Thompson on Mar 3 2011. 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.