Gaston College wins 5th straight to take 2nd place of Region 10

Gaston College's basketball team won its fifth straight game Monday night following an intense, two hour and 18 minute 104-91 victory over USC Salkehatchie at Gastonia's Ashbrook High School gymnasium.

The outcome improved the Rhinos to 22-3 overall and 7-2 in Region 10 and moved them into sole possession of second place in the league standings behind Brunswick Community College (20-3, 6-1).

Gaston College was facing the nation's highest-scoring team with a 114.5 points-per-game average and limited them to 34 in the first half and 57 in a ragged second half that saw 33 of the 53 total fouls called and all four individual technical fouls.

"It was an challenging game and I thought we did a good job against their defensive pressure," said Rhinos coach Benny Moss, whose team led for all but four minutes of the contest. "In the second half, I thought we did a better job attacking with our numbers in the paint. But we also pulled the ball out a little bit when we didn't have something easy and made their defense work.
"That was a key for us in the second half."

Gaston College scored 60 points in the second half including 24 at the foul line as the visiting Indians (21-4, 6-3) were whistled for 20 second half fouls - many of them purposely in the final five minutes of game action that last nearly a half hour.

Sophomores E.J. Joyner (21 points, 4 rebounds, 9 assists), Kaleb Siler (17 points, 6 rebounds, 4 blocks), Ryan Evans (14 points, 15 rebounds, 3 blocks), J.R. Watson (11 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists), Kush Carter (11 points, 4 rebounds), DeAngelo Canty (7 points, 8 rebounds) and Jozohn Price (7 points, 7 rebounds) led a balanced Rhinos' attack.

Facing such a high-scoring offense, Gaston College made some changes defensively that helped it maintain a lead of as many as 15 points and no fewer than six points in the second half.

"They go straight downhill when the game's on the line and try to look for three-point plays," Moss said. "And we forced them to shoot more contested jump shots."

The Rhinos remain at home Thursday at 8 p.m. against Wake Tech and Saturday at 2 p.m. against Cape Fear Community College before playing at USC Salkehatchie on Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. as the Region 10 schedule starts winding to a close.

"We've got to watch this video and learn some things because we play this same team again next Wednesday," Moss said. "And we've got two more home games this week - and we've got to take care of our homecourt."