Pacers stumble in home loss to Hurricanes
Jan. 14—GEORGIA SOUTHWESTERN 62, USC AIKEN 58
USC Aiken men's basketball assistant coach T.J. Knight may have put Saturday's game into words better than anyone.
Late in the second half of a tight battle against Georgia Southwestern, and with action set to resume down at the Hurricanes' end of the court, Knight bellowed across the floor to his players, "Find a way!"
It appeared the Pacers had done just that when Tyler Johnson finally hit the team's first 3-pointer of the game and Jameel Rideout followed with a bucket to take the lead, but it was the Hurricanes who found a way instead.
Georgia Southwestern finished the game on a 7-1 run for a 62-58 win against a USCA team that's now lost two of its last three, all of them sluggish performances in Peach Belt Conference play.
Johnson's triple came with 3:17 left in the game to tie it at 55, and it snapped a streak of 15 consecutive misses from deep by the Pacers (11-5, 4-2 PBC). After a Hurricanes (8-6, 2-4) miss, the Pacers came right back down the floor for Rideout's bucket and a foul.
The free throw was no good, but to have retaken the lead made it appear that maybe the Pacers were going to grind out their second win in a row.
Instead, Rideout was hit with a technical foul a minute later for flopping. The Hurricanes missed the free throw but got a bucket on the extra possession, tying it at 57 with 2:23 to play.
The teams made a free throw apiece, leaving the game tied at 58 with 40 seconds to go. Phillip Burwell got free for a three-point play with 20 seconds to go, and suddenly the Pacers found themselves in need of a 3 on a day when those simply weren't falling.
Rideout faked to give himself some space for a shot at the tie, but it bounced off the side of the rim — the Pacers' 17th miss against just one make.
Georgia Southwestern added a free throw to ice it, handing USCA a surprising loss before the Pacers hit the road next week.
Jalen McCoy led the Pacers in scoring with 14 points on 5-for-8 shooting, Karon Boyd had 13 and Johnson scored 11. USCA shot 35.1% as a team and was unable to capitalize on extra opportunities — the Pacers pulled down 12 offensive rebounds but turned those into only 11 second-chance points.
USCA also turned the ball over 16 times after doing so only eight times in Wednesday's grind-it-out win over Georgia College, and Georgia Southwestern finished the game shooting 44.4%.
Up next for the Pacers is a road game Wednesday at Clayton State, followed by another road trip Saturday to Young Harris.
