Staff report Catawba’s men’s basketball team lost to USC Aiken 85-72 Sunday evening in a Southeast Regional semifinal played in Augusta, Ga.
The second-seeded Pacers (25-7) shot 51.9 percent from the field and made their half their 3-point attempts to advance to Tuesday’s regional final against No. 1 seed Augusta State (28-4), which beat Conference Carolinas representative Barton 77-61.
Rob Fields led the Indians with 24 points, shooting 9-for-13 from the floor and going 4-for-4 from the foul line. Antonio Houston scored 16 points but shot 5-for-16. Dominick Reid’s 12 points came on 5-for-15 shooting. He had seven assists. Donald Rutherford scored 10 points and had six rebounds.
USC Aiken began the game on a tear from 3-point range. The Pacers hit four early 3s to take a slim lead.
Catawba was then held scoreless for five minutes and fell behind by double digits. USC Aiken, which hit seven first-half 3s, led 47-30 at halftime.
The Pacers led by as many as 21 points in the second half before Reid and Fields led a run by the Indians. Houston’s 3-pointer with 3:52 remaining cut the deficit to single digits, and a layup by Cliff Burns with 3:17 to go pulled the Indians within eight.
But Catawba missed nine of its last 10 shots, and the Pacers made free throws for the final margin.
Catawba (22-9) shot 40.3 percent for the game
USC Aiken reached Division II’s Sweet Sixteen for the first time. Eight regional champs will advance to Springfield, Mass., to compete for the national championship.
Five Pacers scored in double figures. Seven Pacers hit a 3-pointer.
Cody Ballard led USC Aiken with 18 points. Josh Dollard had 16 points and 14 boards in just 17 minutes. Catawba did a good job against Pacer All-American Chris Commons, who is closing in on 2,000 career points. He scored 11.
See Scoreboard for box.