Saturday, February 23, 2002
RAYFORD’S
CAREER-HIGH 37 POINTS LEADS BLUE HOSE TO A 82-65 WIN OVER
NEWBERRY COLLEGE IN SAC MEN’S BASKETBALL ACTION
NEWBERRY,
SC — Presbyterian College junior guard Chuck Rayford (Greenville, SC) scored
a career-high 37 points to lead the Blue Hose to a 82-65 win
over Newberry College in South Atlantic Conference men’s
basketball action Saturday night at Eleazer Arena.
Rayford was redhot from the
start, hitting 12-of-18 field goals and was 12-of-14 from the
free throw line. Rayford’s impressive performance was a
season-high in the South Atlantic Conference and eclipsed his
career-high of 33 points set twice during his career including
last season versus Wingate University.
Newberry’s senior forward
Alex Fair opened
the game by hitting a trio of three-pointers to stake the
Indians to a early 11-3 lead at the 17:34 mark. The Blue Hose
fought throw the Indians’ three-point shooting and took
their first lead of the game at 12-11 at the 14:28 mark on a
jumper by junior center Rod
Isom (Anderson, SC). After the Indians
retook the lead at 14-12, the Blue Hose outscored
Newberry 34-19 the rest of the half and took a 46-33 lead into
intermission.
Rayford led the way for the
Blue Hose first half with 19 points on seven-of-11 shooting
from the field. Isom added 11 first half points as the Blue
Hose shot 59.3% from the field. Newberry, who started redhot
from the field, cooled off to shoot 40.0% for the first half
and were led by Fair’s 15 points on four-of-seven shooting
from three-point land.
The Blue Hose held a double
figure lead for the beginning of the second half until
Newberry went on a 15-6 run to cut the lead to four points at
61-57 with 8:25 remaining on a three-point play by senior
guard Albert Garrett.
The game stayed close until the Blue Hose used a 12-7 to push
the lead back to double figures at 75-67 with 2:00 left in the
game. During that span, PC shot 10-for-10 from the free throw
line including Rayford going six-for-six from the charity
stripe. PC silenced the Indians by shooting nine-of-10 from
the free throw line in the last two minutes to seal the
victory.
Joining Rayford for scoring
honors was Isom who tallied 15 points and seven rebounds while
junior wing Jeff
Whittle (Strasburg, VA) added 10 points and eight
rebounds. The Blue Hose dominated the boards holding a 46-26
advantage on the night.
Newberry was led by
Fair’s team-high 18 points while fellow seniors Zeb
Reid and Theron
Chandler added 15 and 10 points apiece.
Presbyterian improved to
11-5 overall and 4-10 in the SAC. The Blue Hose enter next
week’s Food Lion/SAC Tournament as the #6 seed and will
travel Tuesday, February 26 to Salisbury, NC to take on the #3
seeded Indians of Catawba College at 8:00 pm.
Newberry falls to 3-22
overall and 1-13 in the league and will be the #8 seed in the
upcoming tournament. The Indians will travel Tuesday night to
Jefferson City, TN to take on top seed Carson-Newman College
at 8:00 pm.