Rhinos improve to 5-0 with win over Pitt County Community

Gaston College's return to basketball continued its perfect start on Sunday afternoon with a 97-68 victory over Pitt County Community College at North Gaston High School.

The Rhinos improved their record to 5-0 in their first season of basketball in 50 years.

Trailing only once - at 2-1 - Gaston College used a balanced offensive attack and another suffocating defensive effort to roll to a 41-30 halftime lead before taking a 29-point victory.

Damon Davis (21 points, 5 assists), Naysean Baisy (16 points), Jaylen Bates (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Dee Merriweather (12 points) led the offense and Kalil Camara had four blocked shots and Bates three as the Rhinos limited the Bulldogs (2-2) to 38.9 percent shooting and forced them into 16 turnovers.

"This is a good win for us," Gaston College coach David Nutt said. "They're a quality opponent. This is the first junior college opponent we have played this year so we didn't really know what to expect. Defensively, I thought we were pretty good. We welcomed Naysean Baisy back and we got really good efforts from a lot of players, especially Damon Davis and Jaylen Bates."

Gaston College is slated to play Erskine's Varsity II team on Tuesday night before a weekend trip at perennial junior college powers Tallahassee Community College on Friday and Northwest Florida on Saturday.