Pacers drop home ppener to Braves
Nov. 12—The USC Aiken men's basketball team lost a hard-fought 70-64 contest to No. 8 UNC Pembroke Sunday afternoon.
The Pacers are now 1-1 on the season while the Braves improve to 2-2.
Head coach Mark Vanderslice's team was led by Tehree Horn's team-high 17 points. He also snagged seven rebounds and had a pair of steals in 33 minutes of work.
Jalen McCoy tallied 15 points, six rebounds and two steals while Tyler Johnson netted 14 points and had a game-high four steals.
Jameel Rideout accounted for nine markers while Rhyjon Blackwell and Demitrios Dixon added four points and three points, respectively. Devin Evans chipped in two points.
In the back-and-forth battle, USC Aiken trailed 17-13 but Johnson drained a three-ball with 9:31 to go in the half. McCoy followed it up with a jumper before Johnson found Evans for a thunderous dunk, giving the home team a 20-17 lead. Rideout's jumper at the 7:23 mark pushed the margin to five, 22-17.
The Pacers extended the lead to six with 4:36 to play when Evans stole a pass and found Rideout for a lay-up. UNC Pembroke tied the game at 28-28 at the 1:12 mark off a lay-up. The teams traded the next four points but with 11 seconds to go in the half, USC Aiken was whistled for a foul. The Braves hit all three charity tosses for a 33-30 lead at the break.
UNC Pembroke pushed the margin to 10, 42-32 but Horn scored four straight points to pull the home team within six with 15:59 to go. Down by six, Rideout hit a free throw. On the ensuing possession, McCoy nailed a jumper to make it a 46-43 game.
Trailing 50-46, Horn recorded a steal and a dunk. Down 52-48, Horn converted an old-fashioned three-point play. However, that was as close as Vanderslice's team would get the rest of the way.
USC Aiken continued to play hard. Trailing by nine with 1:15 to play, McCoy helped cut the deficit to four at 67-63 but the visitors scored the next three points to make it 70-63 with five seconds remaining.
For the game, USC Aiken hit 22-of-53 from the floor (41.5 percent). The squad buried 17-of-22 from the charity stripe (77.3 percent). Vanderslice's team was outrebounded 41-28. USC Aiken forced 16 turnovers and converted the miscues into 21 points.
The Pacers return to action Wednesday when they host Tusculum at 7:30 p.m. Live stats and video will be available at pacersports.com.
