Top moments of 2025-26: No. 3 - Basketball wins Region 10 regular season title

When Gaston College first began athletics in the mid-1960s, basketball was the school's first program.

And while the program has been largely successful with 10 winning records in 12 full seasons, the 2025-26 Rhinos accomplished something that had never been accomplished in school history: An outright conference regular season title.

Gaston College did so with a late-season surge led by Region 10 player of the year Kaleb Siler, all-league selections E.J. Joyner and Ryan Evans and a roster of players hungry to set school history.

Coach Benny Moss' team, which would finish 28-4 overall for the second-winningest season in history, closed out its Region 10 slate with a 104-89 "Sophomore Day" victory over defending Region 10 champion Brunswick Community College and a 98-83 road win at perennial Region 10 power Caldwell Tech.

"Winning a championship is a tribute to the guys in the locker room," Rhinos coach Benny Moss said after the win over Brunswick at Gastonia's Ashbrook High School. "From the preseason to non-conference to the conference season, they've brought it every single day."

In the win at Caldwell Tech, Joyner had the highest-scoring game in modern school history and the ninth 40-point game in all time school history. He tallied 40 points on 15 of 22 field goal shooting (four of six on 3-pointers) and six of six from the free throw line. The previous record since the school resumed athletics in 2021 was 36 points by Jaylen Bates in the 2021-22 season finale.

In the 1964 to 1972 era, five players surpassed 40 points eight times highlighted by the school-record 54 points from Leonard Hamilton in January 1968. Jim Turpin had three 40-point games, Barry Faith two and Jimmy Crume and Charles Hamilton had one each.

"It feels good," Moss said after the regular season finale. "I'm proud of our guys for staying focused. It's something we've preached about from Day One.
"Once we got on campus and got in the weight room when school started in September, we talked about how it's a process and there's a standard with our goal being to win the league championship. And we went on the road and got a heckuva win to finish the regular season and win that title."