Rhinos suffer first defeat of season at Tallahassee Community College

Gaston College's unbeaten start to its season was put to an end by a strong second half by host Tallahassee Community College on Friday night.

Tallahassee Community College took an 84-75 win over the Rhinos to drop Gaston College to 6-1 on the season.

The Rhinos remain in Florida and face another stiff challenge on Saturday at 5 p.m. as they travel to play Northwest Florida State College. Northwest Florida State College is the No. 10-ranked team in the latest National Junior College Athletic Association poll.

In Friday's game, Gaston College twice trailed by 11 points in the first half before rallying to take a 39-36 halftime lead.

In the second half, the Rhinos took a 51-46 lead with 13 1-2 minutes to play and were ahead 57-56 with 8:29 left before the Eagles responded with a game-closing 28-18 surge to take the nine-point victory.

Sophomore guard Damon Davis led Gaston College with 20 points, 11 assists, three steals and two rebounds. Da'marco Watson (17 points, 6 assists), Kalil Camara (14 points, 4 rebounds), Jaylen Bates (10 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals) and Naysean Baisy (10 points, 3 rebounds) also were key Gaston College contributors.

"We're very disappointed to lose," Rhinos coach David "Dickey" Nutt said. "But we didn't have that level of toughness in the second half to start. I thought we played really hard.
"I was really pleased with the play of Damon, DaMarco, Jaylen and Kalil played well. It's very disappointing but we will bounce back. This was a good learning experience."

Gaston College, which is restarting its basketball program for the first time since 1972, had begun the season with a 6-0 record for its longest winning streak since it won 14 straight during the 1971-72 season. It's also the second-best start to a season in school history; The 1966-67 team started with 13 straight victories.