PBC Tournament - USC Aiken Wins Defensive Battle Over Clayton State 60-50
AIKEN, S.C. -- In a low-scoring rematch of the 2008 Peach Belt
Conference (PBC) Tournament Championship game, second seed and
national No. 17 USC Aiken avenged last year’s loss with a
quarterfinal victory over seven seed Clayton State University
tonight (March 6) 60-50.
The host school, USCA improves to 22-6, advancing to play third
seed Armstrong Atlantic State University tomorrow at 8 p.m. in the
semifinals. The Lakers see their season come to a close at
15-14.
PBC Player of the Year Chris Commons went just 5-for-12 from the
floor, including 1-of-5 from downtown, but finished with 17 points
and six rebounds to lead the way for the Pacers before fouling out.
Guard Kingsley Oguchi helped with 12 points.
The Lakers also had two double-figure scorers, as Bernard Fields
had 15 with supersub Will Lewis adding 12 and six rebounds off the
pine.
The hustle points all went Clayton’s way, as they took
points in the paint (22-18), points off turnovers (13-8) and
second-chance points (11-7). The difference came in a slight
shooting advantage for the Pacers at 37.8 percent (17-45) to 31.3
(15-48), combined with a slow start for the Lakers.
The early going was all Pacers, as they held Clayton scoreless for
the first 3:01. The Lakers failed to hit a field goal until the
9:07 mark in the half, when Lewis knocked down a drop-step lay-in
from the left side and the Pacers led 12-3.
Lewis provided a slight spark to ignite the Laker offense, as
Clayton went on a 15-11 run over the remainder of the first half,
closing down 23-18.
PBC Tournament – Game Quotes – USC Aiken vs.
Clayton State
Clayton State Head Coach Gordon Gibbons
“Aiken averages 80 points per game. Well, nobody scores 80
against us. The thing is, we had one point the first 10 minutes of
the game and that’s been a little bit of our problem this
year. We’ve had times this year where we’ve just
struggled to score and today was obviously one of those. Nothing
against USCA or what they were doing, but our offensive struggles
have nothing to do with what the other team is doing, in most
cases. We’ve just been inconsistent.”
“I wish for the fans we could have taken it down to one
point, two point in the last 20 seconds, but some things
didn’t fall for us.”
“You gotta give Aiken credit, they played the game out and
did a good job against the press. They did what good teams have to
do in March, which is win a close game.”
USC Aiken Head Coach
Vince Alexander
“I thought it was a defensive battle. We knew coming into
this game that we would have to defend as well as anything and that
they would defend. We didn’t shoot the ball particularly
well, but the good thing is that we defended well so that they
didn’t shoot well.”
“We kept trying to figure out some things to do offensively
because they weren’t scoring and we thought defensively we
were doing a tremendous job but we were just trying to figure out
some different sets we could run to get things going.”
“Clayton does a really good job of forcing you to shoot
outside shots. They are going to take your inside game away. They
gave us the outside shots, we just weren’t making
them.”
“I don’t think we get the credit around the league for
being a defensive team. I think we have a good defensive team.
“
USC Aiken’s Chris
Commons
“Any time you’re in a tournament you want to match the
other team’s intensity. They create points off of turnovers
and pressure so in order to beat them. Everybody shot horribly, so
we have to out-defend them to win the game.”
USC Aiken’s
Kingsley Oguchi
“We knew it was going to be a battle. Last year, they took
something from us and we just knew it was going to come down to who
was going to execute more. Last year, when it came down to the wire
we didn’t execute. They played harder than us and we knew
that this year it couldn’t happen like that. So, that’s
really what I am the most happy about is that we played harder and
executed better than them.”