PC could just as easily stand for Painfully Conservative as Presbyterian College.
“That team is no fun to play,” grimaced Catawba forward Ned Gusic after the Indians whipped Presbyterian 79-55 for an important SAC win on Wednesday night. “They walk it up, they pound it inside, they will not go up and down. We wanted to blow it up the floor and shoot.”
Funny thing was, while PC won the battle of contrasting styles at Goodman Gym— usually forcing Catawba to grind away in a halfcourt game — it still lost the battle on the scoreboard by plenty.
“PCis methodical,” said Catawba coach Jim Baker. “They’re a good team and a hard team to play, They’re the Princeton of our league. The big thing tonight was our defense. I was proud of the way we D’d them up in the halfcourt.”
Catawba’s defense was pretty, even if the game wasn’t. The Indians held PC to 26 percent shooting and forced 12 turnovers while building an 11-point halftime lead. And an 11-point lead in a game played at this pace was as good as 20.
Baker pointed specifically at the defensive effort of former North Stanly High guard Quentin “Q” Bryant, who hounded Presbyterian star Chuck Rayford into a 4-for-18 shooting nightmare. Rayford, who averages 17 ppg, didn’t score at all in the first 18 minutes. Bryant played 20 minutes and took exactly one shot. He knew his sole job was to contain Rayford.
“I didn’t let him go to his right and forced him where I had some help,” said Bryant, who carried away a large pizza as a tasty trophy.
“Quentin’s a very good athlete, but mostly he just played Rayford really smart,” said Baker. “Rayford is unique, because he can shoot it or drive it, but Quentin took away the things he wanted to do.”
Catawba came out for the second half eager to put the game away. A fabulous three-point play on a reverse layup by Gusic, a shot on which he put a pool shark’s spin on the ball, got the Indians rolling. The Tribe’s lead climbed all the way to 21 at 57-36 midway through the second half before Baker’s team went cold.
PC then used the foul line to chip away and actually got as close as 59-47 with seven minutes left.
But Indian guard Kevin Petty stole a careless outlet pass and turned it into a huge, drought-ending bucket. Then Baker called a timeout and Catawba went back to work, easily keeping PC at bay the rest of the way.
Catawba got big games from 6-foot-9 Alex Luyk, who had 19 points and 10 boards; Petty who had 18 points and four assists; and Gusic, who had 15 points and seven boards. Duke Phipps added eight points in one burst.
The win gave the Indians (21-4, 10-3) a hard-earned sweep of PC (16-9, 9-4), sole possession of second place in the league and a hold on the No. 5 perch in the South Atlantic Region rankings.
Amazingly enough, the Indians are still in the hunt for the SAC title, even though they’ve been playing without injured star Terrence Hamilton for 11 games.
“Kids break bones,” sighed Baker, “but Terrence’s injury was so flukish. How many kids in the whole country break a leg? Two or three? So much stuff went wrong. But we’ve overcome it. We’re 9-2 now without Terrence.”
“The first day or so after Terrence was hurt, I thought the worst — that maybe our season was gone,” said Gusic. “It was a tragic loss, but we learned to compensate. Everyone is doing 5 to 10 percent more than before.”
“A lot of different people have stepped up and played big,” added Bryant. “That’s the sign of a good team.”
Actually, make that a very good team. A team that has just one regular-season game left — at home on Saturday against rival Carson-Newman.
“It will be emotional, because it’s Senior Night, said Gusic, one of only two Tribe seniors. “We never lose on Senior Night. That’s a tradition we’re going to continue.”
At least the Tribe won’t have to worry about a snailish pace against Carson-Newman. The Eagles fly up and down.
NOTES:The biggest roar of the night was for Tribe senior reserve Chris Montanaro, who scored five late points. ... Catawba’s SAC champion footballers were honored at halftime. ... Catawba won the first meeting by five points in Clinton. ... Presbyterian, ranked eighth in the region, swept the Tribe in the regular season last year. ... Catawba got assists from eight different players. ... Brian Carter had four blocks for the Indians. ... D. J. Humphries scored 15 for PC. ... Catawba’s won 17 straight at home.
PRESBYTERIAN (55) — Isom 5, Whittle 8, Humphries 15, Campbell 3, Rayford 10, Touchberry 5, Stamps 5, Scully 2, Davis, Dellinger 2, Adams.
CATAWBA (79) — Bryant 2, Carter 3, Luyk 19, Gusic 15, Petty 18, Parks 2, Phipps 8, Raikes 3, Hagaman, Proctor 4, Robertson, Montanaro 5, Jernigan, Whitehead, Parker, Everett.
Presbyterian 21 34 — 55
Catawba 32 47 — 79
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