Gaston College suffers first road conference loss at league leader

Gaston College's basketball team finally ran into a road block in Region 10 league play.

The Rhinos dropped their first league road game in a 72-60 Tuesday night loss at Region 10 leader Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute.

Gaston College fell to 12-8 overall and 3-4 in league play; The Rhinos had won their first three league road games this season.

The Rhinos led 19-13 in the middle of the first half before Caldwell (18-4, 5-2) surged to take a 33-31 halftime lead.

Gaston College forged ahead 44-38 with 13:20 left and was ahead 55-53 with 7:18 left.

But the host Cobras went on a 17-2 surge for a 70-55 lead that stole the game's momentum for good.

"The biggest thing is that we didn't play for 40 minutes," Rhinos coach David "Dickey" Nutt said. "For 30 minutes we were pretty good, but when we couldn't score a basket, we dropped our heads and it affected us defensively.
"Giving up second chance points because we didn't put a body on someone to block out is a mental toughness that we have had for most of the year. We have to get that toughness back. Then it snowballed on us for about a five-minute stretch. That was the difference in the game."

Jaylen Bates had 14 points, Kalil Camara 13, Damon Davis nine and Dedrick Givens eight to lead Gaston College, which returns to action on Saturday at 2 p.m. at North Gaston High School against defending Region 10 champion Brunswick Community College.

"We have played fairly well on the road this year for the most part and have not been easily rattled," Nutt said. "But tonight we let our offense - or should I say lack of - affect our defense in a soft way.
"We will get back to work tomorrow and try to correct some things to get ready for a very tough Brunswick team."