Gaston College falls on the road at Spartanburg Methodist

An opportunistic Spartanburg Methodist team defended its homecourt on Wednesday night in a 72-62 win over Gaston College.

The Rhinos, who had won six of their previous eight Region 10 road games, fell behind by 10 points in the first seven minutes and never led in the contest.

Gaston College (12-5, 2-2) trailed 36-22 at halftime before cutting the lead to 38-33 early in the second half and got within 10 with nine minutes to play before the Pioneers (15-6, 3-1) answered every Rhinos' surge.

"You just can't win with 22 points in the first half," Rhinos head coach Jamie Rosser said. "They were able to take advantage of second-chance points because we made too many turnovers which they capitalized on. We have to improve on 50-50 balls, second-chance points and unforced turnovers, while gaining more confidence and getting stronger at making free throws.
"SMC beat us to every rebound opportunity and every loose ball opportunity; those are the effort plays we talk about that are 'must haves' if you want to win on the road."

DaMarco Watson (15 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists), Jordan Guthrie (15 points), Dee Merriweather (12 points, 3 steals), Tyree Bracey (8 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) and Caleb McCarty (4 points, 4 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, 2 steals) led the Rhinos, who missed nine of 25 free throws.

Gaston College remains on the road in this current stretch of five Region 10 road games in six games on Saturday, at 2 p.m., when they visit league-leading defending champion Caldwell Tech (17-2, 5-0).

Rosser thought DaMarco Watson showed a lot of grit and determination as the sophomore point guard was solid and displayed great effort both offensively and defensively.

"If we could've had three or four other guys to match his intensity, it would've been a different game," Rosser said. "He led us in toughness tonight I'm just disappointed my guys didn't help him more and match his energy.
"The best thing about basketball is that you don't have to wait long to get it right and for us we must move on to the next game which is Caldwell on Saturday. Even a loss can and must be learning experience, and hopefully that's exactly what we take from tonight's loss."