Gaston College uses hot shooting, defense to pick up another Region 10 road victory

The Gaston College Rhinos are now 2-for-2 in Region 10 road basketball openers after an impressive 88-69 win at Denmark Tech on Saturday afternoon.

"When we take a two-hour trip like today, it truly helps us get a little more focused," Gaston College coach Jamie Rosser said. "We get away from it all and focus on basketball. The bus ride to the game was quiet and the focus was what it needed to be."

The Rhinos improved to 12-4 overall and 2-1 in Region 10 after scoring 22 of the game's first 30 points and taking a pair of 22-point leads in the first half behind another sizzling shooting effort from 3-point bombers Dee Merriweather and Jordan Guthrie.

Merriweather scored 28 points on 8-of-11 3-point shooting and had 20 points in the first half burst that helped Gaston College take a 52-33 lead at the break. Guthrie had 17 points on 4-of-9 3-point shooting.

Other Rhinos' standouts were Tyree Bracey (17 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists), DaMarco Watson (10 points, 11 assists, 8 rebounds), Joshua Johnson (8 points) and Jamal Ukaegbu (7 points).

"When you have a guy shooting the ball as well as Dee Merriweather is shooting it, he's hard to guard," Rosser said. "We're sharing the ball at a high level. DaMarco is doing a great job of leading us, controlling the pace and making great reads that's allowing us to get good quality looks at the basket. Getting assists is important because it becomes contagious and really makes the game fun."

Merriweather, who holds the school record with nine 3-pointers last season in a home win over Caldwell Tech, is 17-of-32 on 3-pointers in three Region 10 games.

The Rhinos made 35 3-pointers in their three Region 10 games and have converted 10 or more 3-pointers four times in the last eight games.

The victory allowed Gaston College to improve to 24-6 all-time in road conference games, including 6-2 in Region 10 the last two seasons with opening victories in their first road game each season.

However, as Rosser pointed out, the hot shooting complemented by sticky full-court man-to-man defensive pressure after most made baskets.

"Our defense is actually what I'm most proud about because we did make them uncomfortable," Rosser said. "We caused some turnovers, and we were able to capitalize on some of those turnovers, which made it easier for the offense."

Gaston College continues the stretch of five Region 10 road games in six contests when they visit perennial league power Spartanburg Methodist on Wednesday at 7 p.m.