Lady Bobcats rally past Beaufort

Published 12:58 pm Friday, February 14, 2025

After a horrendous first half on both ends of the court Wednesday, the Georgia College & State University women’s basketball team sizzled in the second to claim another crucial Peach Belt Conference victory at home.

South Carolina-Beaufort, coming into The Centennial Center with a 3-8 PBC record, also did a 180 turn in its caliber of play from one half to another, just the opposite of the performance from Ross Jolly’s Lady Bobcats.

With four players scoring in double figures and two getting double digits in rebounds, Georgia College defeated the visiting Sand Sharks of South Carolina’s low country 68-61. Jolly’s team went from shooting a paltry 28% in the first half for 21 points to an even 50% in the second for 47. SC-Beaufort was a blistering 54.2% in the first half – including 7-for-10 in the second quarter – but only went 10-for-28 in the second.

Evie DePetro, the graduate transfer from Tennessee coming off the bench, was particularly hot going 3-for-3 in 3-pointers in the second half. She had 14 points, which tied starting guard Hannah Cail for the team lead. Two more starting guards, Ashyia Willis and Deshona Gaither, scored 13 and 11 respectively.

The national leader in rebounds, Jada Warren, went above her 14.1 average with 15 Wednesday. Miracle Parker grabbed 12 boards herself as GSCS outrebounded the Lady Sharks by 23.

Coming off the Beaufort bench, guard Brielle Bartelt from Minnesota, led all players with 20 points. 5-2 guard Taniya Bowman of Hinesville scored 14.

Georgia College had all kinds of problems with the open shot in the first half, not getting enough lift on the basketball to get it above the rim. The home club would enjoy an early lead thanks to the offensive rebound and assist from Warren to Parker and the baseline assist from DePetro to fellow reserve Nyal Nuri.

Bartelt entered the game and immediately paid dividends having a hand in five straight points, thus flipping the advantage to the Lady Sharks.

Both Nuri and Bailey Vick gave Jolly valuable minutes off the bench Wednesday. In just her 10th appearance, Vick scored on penetration to tie the game 13-13. It would stay that way to end the first period as GCSU lost the basketball trying to wind the game clock down. Gaither, however, made a steal to keep Beaufort from taking the lead.

Bowman, though, opened the second quarter with five straight points. The Lady Bobcats didn’t make a 3-pointer in the first half despite eight attempts, but Bartelt made three from long range. With GCSU making only one basket over eight minutes, SC-Beaufort went up by 10, 27-17.

In the last 45 seconds, Willis scored off a Camryn James steal, and Beaufort committed a shot-clock violation on its final possession.

The Lady Sharks were up 29-21 at halftime and kept up their pace in the third quarter to go up by 15 at 6:31. This even though Cail scored her team’s first 3 35 seconds into the second half. Bartelt scored eight in the span of 3:30, but the Beaufort team only added four more the remainder of the period.

GCSU first got to the foul line for six points as part of an 11-0 run. As Beaufort was 1-for-6 on 3-balls in the third, Parker had a penetration assist to James and Willis had a key steal and assist to Gaither.

The Lady Sharks held on to a 47-45 lead as the fourth quarter began, but it became a new game with the put-back by Willis. Gaither, with eight second-half points, got two on a second-chance made by Warren. GCSU would not fall behind again.

DePetro made sure of that scoring eight in a row for her team in a lineup that included Vick, Nuri and Rose Bone.

The Lady Bobcats won their third in a row and improved to 14-9 overall and 7-6, good for fifth place in the PBC.

’CATS FALL IN OT

A halfcourt shot from James Nichols III heroically sent Georgia College & State University into overtime against the University of South Carolina-Beaufort; however, the Bobcats fell short 91-87 during the extra time in a Peach Belt Conference men’s basketball game Wednesday inside the Centennial Center.

The Bobcats fell to 8-15 overall and to 3-10 in the PBC as GCSU dropped its third PBC game in overtime this season. All three were at home.

The scoring started slow for the night contest, with everything tied at 12 almost eight minutes into the game, but jump shots from Nichols and Mason Etter gave the Bobcats a five-point lead a minute later. GCSU maintained the lead well, using free throws from Aidan Kudlas at the end of the quarter to enter the half with a seven-point lead.

Kudlas knocked down another jumper to open the second half, followed by a three-pointer by Oscar Lynch to extend the lead to double-digits. However, GCSU could not hold onto the lead for long, as the Sand Sharks erased the deficit at the 13:44 mark with a jump shot by Nolan Paladugu, tying things at 45. Both teams traded leads and ties, with Kyle Polce and Tasso Sfanos of USCB knocking down back-to-back three-pointers while a jumper by Dallas Clayton and a three-pointer by Etter were the Bobcats answers.
Both teams played a game of cat and mouse throughout the rest of the half until Paladuga knocked in consecutive free throws to give USC Beaufort a 79-76 lead with a three-pointer with seven-tenths of a second remaining on the clock. Mason Etter took the inbounds pass and threw it to Nichols at midcourt, who launched the ball before the horn sounded and banked the ball off the backboard and swished through the nets to tie the game at 79 at the end of regulation.
GCSU opened overtime strong with a jumper from Kudlas, a steal from Kudlas, a jumper from Lynch, and a steal from Nichols III, but USCB would answer back quickly in the way of free throws and took a four-point lead via the free throw line with less than a second on the clock.

Nichols led the Bobcats in points with 18, followed by a spread of points from Carpio (15), Kudlas (14), Lynch (12), and Etter and Davis (9). Carpio led GCSU in rebounds with 11, cementing a double-double on the night. Etter tallied six assists.