Buck Joyner probably felt pretty good Tuesday night at halftime. His winless Livingstone College Blue Bears were within a point of Catawba and they had held Indians’ star Ned Gusic to just two points.
Little did Joyner know Gusic was just setting him up for the kill.
“It has been my trademark this season to shoot bad in the first half and as game goes on, I find my rhythm,” Gusic said.
That theme held true against Livingstone. The Croation Sensation scored 15 of Catawba’s last 26 points as the Indians slipped past the Bears 77-66 in Trent Gym.
“Ned really just took over the ballgame,” said Catawba coach Jim Baker, whose team improved to 4-1 and forgot a 90-70 loss two days earlier at J.C. Smith. “As good as he played tonight, he was that bad Tuesday. We made 32 turnovers and beat ourselves. So tonight we said, ‘Let’s make Livingstone beat us.’”
It looked like Livingstone might just do that.
Still trying to gell with the recent addition of Sheldon Payne, Shaun Wiseman and Willie Rouse, Livingstone pulled into a 51-all tie when Gidney sank a soft 10-footer with 8:30 remaining.
That’s when Gusic grabbed the ball outside and started ordering his younger teammates where to go. It was obvious he had decided to take matters into his own hands.
“That’s his job,” said Terrence Hamilton, who led all scorers with 23 points, several coming off Gusic assists. “When we get in trouble, we give the ball to Ned.”
B.J. Robertson fed Gusic for a 3-pointer but Gidney made it a 1-point game with another basket. With the score, 56-55, Gusic stared down Payne, who was guarding him, and drilled two straight 3’s. His second gave Catawba its biggest lead of the game, 62-57.
It was a little revenge for Gusic, who said Payne had stuck a few jumpers on him before that.
“Payne has a sweet crossover and he took me a couple of times,” Gusic smiled. “I was waiting for Livingstone to switch from zone to man-to-man so I could get him back. I was ready to take those shots.”
Freshman guard Duke Phipps swooped in for a layup but Catawba, which shot 72 percent from the field in the second half, couldn’t shake the Blue Bears. When Payne hit a pull-up jumper, they trailed just 64-61.
“We had a good opportunity tonight,” said Joyner, whose team fell to 0-8. “But we took poor percentage shots, nothing off our patterns.”
Livingstone couldn’t make the big defensive stops either. Hamilton scored on a third shot for a 66-61 lead and Baker ordered the Indians to spread the floor.
That’s when Gusic did his impression of Phil Ford in the Four Corners. He scored three straight baskets by taking it to the hole.
The deciding sequence came with 1:23 remaining. Gusic drove, scored and was fouled. He missed the free throw, Catawba grabbed the rebound and Gusic’s ensuing drive made it 72-63, effectively ending Livingstone’s hopes.
“It was a heck of a ballgame,” said Baker, whose team was ranked No. 1 in the South Region before Tuesday’s loss. “Livingstone is so much better than its record.”
That’s little consolation to Joyner, who is in his first year of trying to turn around this program.
“We came out not in sync again,” he sighed. “We went after it individually instead of teamwise.”
Despite shooting just 8-of-32 in the first half, the Blue Bears led much of it. And they did it with Gidney going 0-for-4 from the field and heading to the locker room with just two points.
“I ate a sandwich and it wasn’t agreeing with me,” said Gidney.
His offensive woes also had something to do with being sandwiched by the 6-6 inside duo of Hamilton and Bryan Carter. Baker couldn’t have asked for more in the first half.
“We have a lot of respect for Gidney,” Baker said. “We were just trying to wear him down a little bit. Bryan and Terrence are good athletes who can do things Rodney can. So we tried to keep a fresh body on him.”
Gidney did not flourish in the helter-skelter first half that saw the teams shoot a combined 30 percent. He saw 6-9 Alex Luyk and Carter block his shots.
But Gidney remained undaunted and decided when the second half started, so would his offense.
“I talked to Coach and decided to leave everything out there on the court in the second half,” Gidney said.
Unfortunately for Livingstone, Gusic was deciding the same thing.
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