Gaston College basketball plays final game of fall semester on Saturday

A year ago, Gaston College lost the first games of its program restart during a two-game road trip to Florida. Last weekend, the Rhinos again dropped back-to-back games of weekend road trip to Florida.

"This may be just what the doctor ordered," Gaston College coach Jamie Rosser said. "We need to get back into practice grind mode. When you're playing a bunch of games you can forget your principles, you forget your discipline and you can forget a lot of things. So we've got to have high level practices to help eliminate some of the problems we're having."

With a 6-3 record, the Rhinos have been largely successful coming off last year's 18-10 finish that raised expectations. They play their last game of the first semester on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Ashbrook High School against Moravian Prep of Hudson; the next game after the Christmas break won't be until Sunday, January 8.

Offensive balance has been a hallmark of this year's team as nine players are averaging 6.1 or more points per game. Freshman Asil Hoyle leads the way at 12.6 points per game. He's followed by sophomores DaMarco Watson (11.4), Caleb McCarty (11.0) Jordan Guthrie (9.0) and Joshua Johnson (8.7), freshman Jamal Ukaegbu (7.7) sophomore Dedrick Givens (7.6), freshman Michael Smith (7.5) and sophomore Dee Merriweather (6.1).

Top rebounders are McCarty (6.2), Ukaegbu (6.0) and Watson (5.4), with Watson (5.3) and Hoyle (3.4) tops in assists.

The struggles, such as they are, have come on the defensive side. That was particularly true last weekend when the Rhinos yielded 110 points in the second half of the two losses.

Rosser wants the defense to improve and recognizes that playing defending National Junior College Athletic Association champion Northwest Florida State in the opener and a highly-competitive Pensacola State College team in the nightcap would stress most teams.

"Sometimes when you take a trip like this one that's productive and you're playing high level teams, it gives you something to see what you need to do to get to where you want to be," Rosser said. "I think that was the case for us. You know, you may lose the game but you gain a learning experience that can help you get to where you want to be. A lot of times losses aren't just losses, they're learning experiences that will provide a challenge and help us gain knowledge and benefit us as a team."