USCA rebounds from loss, hangs on to beat UNG

Kyle Dawson, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·3 min read

Jan. 29—USC AIKEN 94, NORTH GEORGIA 85

There are a couple of different ways one could look at how the USC Aiken men's basketball game went down the stretch Saturday.

One side of that could be disappointment that a 14-point lead with two minutes remaining dwindled to four with under a minute to play.

That's not how Pacers head coach Mark Vanderslice is choosing to look at it. He's taking the positives from the late stages of the Pacers' 94-85 win over North Georgia, as he feels his players will perform better the next time they're in that kind of situation.

Five Pacers scored in double figures as USCA shook off a slow start for a bounce-back win after a disappointing loss last Wednesday at Augusta.

"This was a great team win. We had some different parts of the game that we hadn't seen all year," Vanderslice said. "What I mean by that is, at the beginning of the game we started out pretty sluggish. We came back. We battled back, really caught some momentum going into the half. I was pumped — 39-31 with the way we started show the resilience our team has become accustomed to."

The Pacers (13-6, 7-2 Peach Belt Conference) trailed by nine points in the opening minutes, then caught fire before halftime to take that eight-point lead. That advantage grew to as many as 19 points in the second half as they shot 54.2% from the floor as a team, and then they held on as North Georgia (12-7, 5-5) rallied late.

Such a strong offensive performance was necessary after Wednesday's 21-point loss to Augusta in which they shot just 28.2% overall. Vanderslice said a key to Saturday's outburst was improved shot selection, and David Strother showed that with a 9-for-13 afternoon for a game-high 29 points.

"I feel like the offensive game plan is really the same thing every time," said Strother, who also had seven rebounds and a pair of steals. "I like the play style, and I just feel like I let everything come to me. I just tried to really bounce back from Wednesday, because I didn't shoot the ball good. Just tried to bounce back."

Reigning PBC Player of the Week Tehree Horn had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, Preston Parks scored 14 points, LaTreavin Black had 13 points and eight rebounds, and Tyler Johnson scored 10 points off the bench.

North Georgia came into the game as the PBC's top rebounding team, with an average margin of plus-6.8 per game, but USCA out-rebounded the Nighthawks by a dozen.

"You can't look past that," Vanderslice said. "That is something that the toughness of our team really shined through today. For me to even remotely look past that or gloss over that would be a disservice to our guys."

This was a key win for USCA to regain some positive energy heading into a three-game road stretch that starts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Columbus State. It was crucial for the Pacers to show they could bounce back after a frustrating loss to their biggest rival.

"I think you've got to stay focused when you lose like that," Horn said. "It could really hurt the morale of the team, but I think Coach and everybody did a good job of just staying focused and preparing for this game. I feel like we came ready to play. Hopefully we can use this momentum going forward."