Gaston College rolls to 5-0 with victory at Belmont Abbey

A balanced attack with three scoring 20 or more points lifted Gaston College to a 110-71 victory over the Belmont Abbey College JV team on Monday night at Belmont Abbey's Wheeler Center.

Joshua Johnson led the way with 24 points with Caleb McCarty and Jamal Ukaegbu had 20 points each. All three also had well rounded efforts as Johnson added 3 rebounds, 3 blocked shots and 2 steals), McCarty 6 rebounds, 5 steals, 3 assists and 2 blocked shots and Ukaegbu 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocked shots.

The Rhinos improved to 5-0 overall by leading start to finish, highlighted by an early 20-2 scoring surge that pushed an 8-7 lead to 28-9 with 9:50 left in the first half.

"We really had great effort from a lot of guys," Gaston College coach Jamie Rosser said.

McCarty dominated first half action with 14 points as the Rhinos built a 48-32 halftime advantage, then Johnson had 18 points in the second half.

"Really proud of Caleb," Rosser said. "He turned it up a notch and turned the heat on tonight, Joshua Johnson had it going as well. He took every possession very serious, and it showed. He's really come a long way and I'm happy. He's getting some fruit from his labor.
"And let's talk about Jamal. He's our utility guy we ask him to be a lock down defender and never has a problem with the job. I'm glad tonight he created opportunities to be that 2-way guy that he's growing to become. We will go in and watch film tomorrow and find ways to get better defensively because that's an area that we can always improve in."

All 10 Rhinos who played cracked the scoring column with contributions from Yaya Evans (9 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists), Dee Merriweather (6 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals), DaMarco Watson (6 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists), Dedrick Givens (6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocked shots), Jordan Guthrie (5 points, 2 rebounds) and Kirk Scoggins (4 points, 2 rebounds).

Gaston College returns to action on Thursday in a 7 p.m. road game at Gordon State of Barnesville, Georgia.