Gaston College battles nationally-ranked team before falling on Saturday afternoon

Gaston College played one of the nation's top junior college basketball teams on even terms on its home floor on Saturday afternoon.

In the end, the Rhinos fell 85-70 to No. 10 Northwest Florida State College to end a weekend road trip to Florida.

"I'm so proud of the way our guys played and competed and had our chances with a top team in the country," Gaston College coach David "Dickey" Nutt said. "Their size gave us problems and we couldn't keep them off the glass. They grabbed 17 offensive rebounds for 18 points. That was the difference."

With Dee Merriweather (25 points, 4 steals), Da'marco Watson (18 points) and Damon Davis (13 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) having outstanding games, Gaston College closed within 45-41 just before halftime and were down only 58-54 with 10 1-2 minutes to play before Northwest Florida State College (4-1) pulled away.

Merriweather hit his first eight shots, including seven 3-pointers, to keep the Rhinos close for much of the contest. Watson and Davis scored with a mixture of drives to the bucket and jumpshots.

"Dee Merriweather had an exceptional night and a lot of our hustle plays don't show up in the stat sheet but we played really well," said Nutt, whose team lost 84-75 at Tallahassee Community College on Friday night. "Da'marco Watson was pretty much unstoppable scoring buckets and our defense was so much better in the second half."

Gaston College (6-2) is off until next Sunday at 2 p.m. when it hosts Blue Lights College at North Gaston High School.

"Our guys grew up this weekend and saw just how hard you have to play to be the best in the country," Nutt said. "We will get better."