Gaston College rallies to take 20th victory of the season

Getting a 20th win proved more challenging than expected on Wednesday night for the Gaston College basketball team.

But a strong second half carried the Rhinos to a 102-79 win over visiting Denmark Tech at Gastonia's Ashbrook High School.

Gaston College fell behind by as many as 11 points in the first half before closing within 48-43 at the halftime break.

"It was pretty heated," Rhinos coach Benny Moss said of the team's halftime discussions. "We've got to treat every game like it's our last game of the year and we can't come out like we did tonight.
"Like I told them during video study that we had to remember why we beat this team like we did last time because they aren't just going to roll over.
"We had to play one possession at a time - and we got that point across at halftime."

With a different second half starting lineup that it had in the first Gaston College tied the visiting Panthers at 50 and took the lead for for good with 16 1/2 minutes left in the game.

Reserve Tony Goodman had a season-high 23 points, including 13 in the second half, to spark the Rhinos' getaway that improved their record to 20-3 overall and 5-2 in Region 10.

"We needed a spark in the second half," Moss said. "I put the guys in that competed like we wanted.
"And Tony had an incredible night and we need to make sure we have production from lots of guys every night we play."

Other standouts for Gaston College were Ryan Evans (20 points, 9 rebounds), Kaleb Siler (17 points, 6 rebounds), J.R. Watson (13 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists) and Tin Tikvesa (11 points, 7 rebounds).

It was Gaston College's sixth 20-win season in its 13-year basketball history - and second straight.

The Rhinos now enter the most daunting stretch of the season as they will play four games in eight days starting on Saturday at Richard Bland College in Prince George, Va., before a three-game homestand against USC Salkehatchie (Monday at 8 p.m.), Wake Tech (Nov. 19 at 8 p.m.) and Cape Fear Community College (Nov. 21 at 2 p.m.).

"It's going to be tough," Moss said. "Because of the weather, we had to reschedule Salkehatchie twice. It's going to be challenging. At least the last three are at home. But the first game is the longest road trip."

After making a four-hour, 15-minute one way trip to Richard Bland, Monday's game comes against the nation's highest scoring team in the country as USC Salkehatchie averages 113.6 points per game.

USC Salkehatchie (19-3, 4-2), Wake Tech (13-11, 5-5) and Cape Fear (9-8, 3-5) and Richard Bland (7-9, 3-5) also are four of the next five teams behind league-leading Brunswick Community College (19-3, 5-1) and Gaston College in the region standings.

"So we've got to go up there and play a tough road game and then come back and play the team that is the highest-scoring team in the country," Moss said. "But that's why we have depth and hopefully we'll meet that challenge."