In Short: Cape Fear Men's Basketball secures a comeback to finish off the Gaston Rhinos in an incredible buzzer-beater.
Highlights:
After a great team win on the road against Spartanburg Methodist this past Saturday, Cape Fear was excited to return to their home court to take on the Gaston Rhino. In their previous matchup against the Rhinos last month, the Sea Devils fell short 85-60 and were eager for this rematch to take place in their home arena.
The Sea Devils started off strong and synchronized on defense - often holding the Rhinos to the final seconds of the shot clock before regaining possession. However, Cape Fear really struggled to hit shots throughout the first half. While they opened up various opportunities for each other, the ball continued to rim out while Gaston went on a hot streak from the 3 point line. Cape Fear slowly began generating more of an offensive presence towards the end of the half as they aimed to make aggressive drives in the paint for some strong layups or contested floaters, but ended the first half down 17 points against the Rhinos.
Moving into the second half, things started to click more consistently for the Sea Devils. They turned around their previously-lacking defensive rebounding skills and forced a few key turnovers to keep the Rhinos at bay. Korey Richardson was a workhorse for the Sea Devils throughout the entire half - often putting his body on the line and making hard drives to open up himself and his teammates for even more scoring opportunities. Richardson ended up finishing the game as the 20-point leading scorer for Cape Fear.
The Sea Devils continued to close the scoring gap and managed to meet the Rhinos 60-64 with under 5 minutes to go as Khalil Marshall drained a clutch 3-pointer to round things out.
In the final seconds of the game, with the score 69-70 in the Rhinos' favor, Cape Fear draws out a play and executes with Keishon Porter shooting a contested 3-pointer. Keishon drains it with 1 second to go as the Sea Devils close out an incredible win inside the Schwartz Center.
"We battled back again to come up with a win," says Head Coach Mark Lane. "We kept chipping away and getting consecutive stops. Then Keishon Porter executed the play to perfection with 6 seconds to go."
Up Next: Cape Fear Men's Basketball will take a well-deserved break from gameplay as they will return to the Schwartz Center on Friday, February 17th to take on Caldwell at 6PM.
