Top moments of 2025-26: No. 7 - Basketball finishes as Region 10 runner-up

In National Junior College Athletic Association Division I basketball, the goal at the start of every season is to advance to the historic NJCAA Championship tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas at the end of the season.

The NJCAA first began recognizing champions in 1945 before officially making Hutchinson the home of its national tournament in 1949. Other than in 2020 when canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the event has been held every year since. And the Hutchinson Sports Arena, nicknamed "The Old Barn," has hosted the tournament since that facility opened in 1952.

This season, Gaston College finished one win shy of making that trip as it fell 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 - and as the first team in school history to have two winning streaks of 10 or more games.

This year's Rhinos also 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 team 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 after his team's season came to a close. "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."