Men’s hoops steals two wins at Newberry

Bringing home the 2011 Mom Reeves Classic Championship title, the men’s basketball team won two back-to-back games this past weekend at Newberry College in Newberry, S.C.

Claiming a 72-59 win against the Lee University Flames, the Bobcats’ first game in the tournament, as well as their first non-exhibition game of the season, was played on Friday, Nov. 11.

With 15:08 left in the first half, the Bobcats took the lead and held it when senior Mike Augustine hit a jumper to land an 8-6 score.

Senior forwards Ryan Aquino and Jared Holmes and junior guard Tarrence Chatman were the leading contributors to the scoreboard by all scoring in the double-digits with 18, 17 and 10 points.

The Bobcats only had nine turnovers during the entire game and Lee University had 15. Both teams tied in rebounds at 31, and Aquino snagged six of those.

On Saturday, Nov. 12, the Bobcats played the host, Newberry College. A 79-65 win over the Newberry Wolves garnered the Bobcats the Classic title.

Aquino had another triumphant game shooting a career high of 24 points, as well as nabbing 12 rebounds. His all-time rebounds now tallying in at 486, he ranks eighth in the school’s all-time-rebounding list.

Behind Aquino, the leading scorers were Holmes with 15 points and junior forward Scott Ferguson with 10.

After battling back and forth for the lead, the Bobcats seized it before the half, up 31-29 on the Wolves.

With the Bobcats only turning over the ball 15 times during the game, Newberry was forced to turn over the ball 25 times.

Grabbing slightly more rebounds than the Wolves, the Bobcats had a total of 44 to the Wolves’ 40.

“We beat them on the rebounds. Both games we won the rebounds, which is huge,” Aquino said. “Our defense is definitely what won the game for us.”

Opening their sixth straight season with two wins, the Bobcats are hopeful the wins are indicative of the season’s outcome.

“I feel that this year’s team is more talented than last year,” Jared Holmes said. “We basically got a new team, but as far as the chemistry goes, everybody is playing well together; everybody’s working hard.”

Head Coach Terry Sellers was proud of the team’s hard work and effort, but felt the team played well in spurts, instead of gathering complete control of the ballgame.

“There were times when we shot the ball well, and times when we had good defensive possession and got good stops,” Sellers said. “There were other times when we had some breakdowns on offense, breakdowns on defense.”

Aquino’s accomplishments in the two games landed him the tournament’s MVP title.

Despite their season-opener feats, Sellers knows that difficulty lies ahead in the season.

“This might be the strongest the Peach Belt has ever been,” he said. “We’ve just got to get a tad better every day… I think we can be a hard team to beat.”

The Bobcats play again on Friday, Nov. 18, at Queen’s College in Charlotte, N.C., in the Final Fire Classic.

“Queens, they are pretty much going to be our biggest challenge yet this season,” Holmes said. “We’re going to see what we’re made of.”

Posted by Nick Widener on Nov 17 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.