Gaston College wins Region 10 finale, continues push for postseason play

With its postseason playoff life on the line, Gaston College's basketball team came up with one of its best efforts of the season in an 87-77 victory over Richard Bland College on Wednesday night at Gastonia's Ashbrook High School.

The victory ended the Rhinos regular season at 11-19 overall and 3-13 in Region 10. Gaston College is tied with Denmark Tech for 8th place and now must await other league results to determine which team will gain the eighth (and final) spot in next week's Region 10 tournament.

"That's a great performance for us," Gaston College interim coach Jermaine William said. "I'm very thankful to our team for how they played.
We knew it was a must win tonight. This was a good game for us from start to finish."

The Rhinos never trailed and maintained a double-digit lead for much of the contest while getting several impressive individual efforts.

Tyheim Love (28 points, 2 assists), Yarayah Evans (24 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, 5 blocks), Judah Ravenell (13 points, 7 rebounds), Asil Hoyle (9 points, 7 assists), Kush Carter (8 points, 3 rebounds) and Jamal Ukaegbu (5 points, 4 rebounds, 6 blocks) led Gaston College.

Richard Bland (12-17, 7-9) got within six points twice in the final minutes, the last time at 81-75 with 2:39 to play before the Rhinos ended the game on a 6-2 surge.

Evans had 13 of his 24 points in the first half and Love scored 22 of his 28 points in the second half to lead the offensive effort that also saw Gaston College make nine of 17 3-pointers and nine of 11 free throws.

"It's been a mix of emotion all year with losses and being so close to winning," Williams said. "We have been getting better the last several games but it just hadn't showed on the scoreboard."

That all changed on Wednesday with the regular season-ending victory.