Gaston College's winning streak comes to an end

A hot-shooting Cape Fear Community College ended Gaston College's 14-game winning streak on Saturday afternoon at Gastonia's Ashbrook High School.

The visiting Sea Devils hit 16 total 3-pointers to rally from a halftime deficit and take a 95-80 victory over the Rhinos in their Region 10 home opener.

The loss ends a streak that is tied for second-longest in school history.

Gaston College previously won 14 straight games in the 1966-67 and 1971-72 seasons and the school record is 17 straight wins during the 1969-70 season.

"It's a shame," said first-year Gaston College coach Benny Moss, whose team hadn't lost since its 2024-25 season opener at No. 1-ranked Davidson-Davie Community College. "We had a good streak. But we never talked about the streak. We talked about one game at a time. And, today, I think we just got complacent."

Moss felt the team's energy in recent practices wasn't what it had been and it manifested itself with slow starts to each half on Saturday afternoon.

Gaston College overcame an 11-4 deficit in the first half to eventually build a 14-point lead before taking a 46-34 advantage at the break.

In the second half, another slow start proved much more problematic as Cape Fear Community College drained 10 3-pointers after the break including seven by guard Jessiah Pierre-Johnson; Scoreless in the first half, Pierre-Johnson finished with a team-high 23 points.

Gaston College got its usual offensive balance as Jordan Brown had a game-high 24 points to go with six rebounds and six assists. And Judah Ravenell (18 points, 9 rebounds), E.J. Joyner (17 points, 4 rebounds) and Ryan Evans (11 points, 6 rebounds) had big games.

But it wasn't enough against the Sea Devils (10-6, 2-1), who closed the game on a 31-16 run after the teams were tied at 64 with 7 1/2 minutes to play.

Gaston College (14-2, 1-1) returns to action on Wednesday at 8 p.m. against USC Salkehatchie at Gastonia's Ashbrook High School.

"We've got to take more pride in the defense and play more together on offense," Moss said.