Gaston College falls to hot-shooting USC Salkehatchie in Region 10 home game

A hot shooting opponent with an impressive second half knocked off Gaston College on Tuesday night at North Gaston High School.

USC Salkehatchie, which nailed 15 3-pointers overall and scored 53 points in the second half, edged the Rhinos 92-89 in a Region 10 game.

The visiting Indians (10-7, 1-1) had three 20-point scorers and converted 52.6 percent of their field goals and 55.6 percent of their 3-pointers to overcome a 12-point first half deficit and then hold off a Gaston College rally.

"We had some good performances but not enough to close it out," said Gaston College head coach David "Dickey" Nutt, whose team dropped to 10-6 overall and 1-2 in Region 10. "We knew going in that they were really, really good. They had a level of toughness that prevailed tonight.
"I still felt like we had our chances. We got sloppy in the second half with several unforced turnovers. I thought our inexperience showed somewhat in the second half. I told our guys, 'Welcome to conference basketball. Night in and night out you are going to face very good teams.'"

Jaylen Bates (17 points, 7 rebounds), Damon Davis (16 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists), Kalil Camara (16 points, 8 rebounds), Da'marco Watson (15 points, 3 assists) and Dee Merriweather (13 points) led the Rhinos.

Merriweather scored all 13 of his points in a first half that saw Gaston College build as much as a 32-20 lead and was ahead 49-39 at halftime.

In the second half, USC Salkehatchie made nine 3-pointers as D.J. Sinkler, Jr. (23 points), Lee Langstaff II (21 points) and Jordan Guthrie (20 points) were all major contributors.

The Rhinos have two games left in the current homestand, starting with a 2 p.m. home game at North Gaston against Cape Fear Community College.

"I was really proud of the way our guys played so hard for the most part and we will learn from this game. Theres still a lot of basketball to be played and we will get to practice and try and correct some things," Nutt said.