Gaston College rally comes up short after forcing overtime

Gaston College rallied from a 17-point second half deficit to force overtime, only to drop an 81-72 decision to Brunswick Community
College Saturday at North Gaston High School.

DaMarco Watson's short jumper in the lane tied the score at 66 and sent the game into the five-minute extra period.

The score was tied once more early in OT, but the Dolphins (17-4, 9-2) went on a 7-0 run to build a 75-68 lead with 2:24 remaining.

The Rhinos (12-9, 3-5) never got closer than five the rest of the way.

"I was really proud of our guys tonight, " Rhinos coach David "Dickey" Nutt said. "We absolutely dug down and clawed our way back
when it could have been easy to let go of the rope. We gave ourselves a chance."

The Rhinos had a tough shooting night, especially in the first half and fell behind 36-26 at the break. For the game, the Rhinos shot 33
percent from the field and only 14 percent from 3-point range.

But the Rhinos made a game of it in the second half behind Watson, a freshman guard from New York City. He finished with 20 points and four assists and kept the Rhinos within range with clutch play in the closing minutes of regulation.

Jaylen Bates added 16 points and 10 rebounds for Gaston, followed by Damon Davis with 15 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Kalil Camara chipped in 11 points and pulled down a whopping 15 rebounds.

"They (Brunswick) had a balanced attack with the big guy in the middle," Nutt said. "We do understand that there are going to be nights
when that ball just will not fall, but your defense can be there every night. We don't have time to drop our heads and we understand that we
are in the middle of conference play and its on to the next. We will regroup and be ready Monday. I was really proud of our efforts tonight."

Brunswick's Josiah Shackleford, a 6-9 center who has signed with Florida Gulf Coast, asserted himself inside on both ends of the floor. Shackleford scored a game-high 21 points on 8-for-11 shooting, mostly on dunks and point-blank shots in the paint. In addition, Shackleford blocked four shots and altered a number of others.

The Rhinos fell behind 45-28 with 16:25 to go in the second half before Nutt called a timeout to regroup. After the break in the action,
Gaston steadily chipped away at the deficit before tying the game at 62 with just under four minutes remaining.

Gaston College will look to bounce back Monday at 7 p.m. at South Point High School against Richard Bland.