Gaston College basketball finishes 2025-26 season as Region 10 runner-up

Gaston College's most successful basketball season since the school restarted athletics in 2021 fell one win shy of the National Junior College Athletic Association championship tournament on Saturday afternoon.

The Rhinos lost 90-76 to defending champion Brunswick Community College in the 2026 Region 10 championship at Richard Bland College.

The loss ended Gaston College's season with a 28-4 record and Region 10 regular season title.

The first team in school history to have two winning streaks of 10 or more games finished second in school history in victories (the 1969-70 team went 29-4) and was the second Region 10 runner-up in school history (the 24-12 1970-71 lost the region title game at Ferrum).

"We won a regular season title and we wanted to win a tournament title so we could go to the nationals," Gaston College head coach Benny Moss said. And we came up one step short.
"I'm not going to discredit anything that this group accomplished. They went 28-4 and won a regular season title.
"It hurts right now. But in the future, we'll look back at this season and realize all that we accomplished."

Gaston College led early in the first half before the Dolphins (28-5) went on a surge to take a 39-29 halftime lead.

In the second half, Brunswick built as much as a 22-point lead at 68-46 with 11:03 to play before the Rhinos made a furious rally.

Gaston College cut the lead to single digits at 73-65 with 3:46 to play and were within 78-74 with 1:20 left.

But they wouldn't get any closer.

"Down the stretch, we showed a championship approach and competed like crazy all the way down to the final horn," Moss said. "Credit goes to Brunswick. They made shots when they needed to."

Sophomore E.J. Joyner (27 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists), freshman Tony Goodman (16 points) and sophomore Kaleb Siler (12 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocked shots) led Gaston College.

"At the end of the day, I'm so proud of this group," Moss said. "They brought it every single day, they competed in practice, they competed in games and they were together.
"The reality is that we didn't play our best today. But we battled and gave ourselves a chance."