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Slow start dooms Gaston against Nestucca

Gaston boys dig themselves an early hole and never recover against league rival Nestucca

A slow start and hurried offense were the nemesis of the Gaston boy's basketball team Tuesday night, as they fell to the Nestucca Bobcats 72-61.

Nestucca took an early 4-0 lead and never looked back. A two-point conversion by Paul Catino would put the Greyhounds within two, which would be the closest the score was all night.

'When you're down by that much early on, it's hard to come back,' said coach Larry King after the game. 'They went on runs and we didn't cover them.'

The Greyhounds live and die by their 3-point shots and on Tuesday they were sporadic at best. Gaston would sink three field goals in a row, then turn around and miss three in a row.

Despite their sporadic shooting the Greyhounds press defense caused turnovers that kept the game close as they entered half time down by just seven, 35-27.

Gaston opened the second quarter with a quick two points from junior Parker Bolden, but poor ball control and an inability to slow down the game led to a 13-point Bobcat lead halfway through the third period.

Bolden would lead all Greyhound scorers with 19 points on the night, followed by senior Cody Fassold with 10 points.

Gaston spread around their points, with seven of their 10 players scoring points on the night.

Despite their efforts to regain the lead, Gaston continued to come up short. By the end of the third quarter Nestucca's lead was at 21 and the Greyhounds pressure defense and three point shots had failed them.

The Greyhounds and senior Joel Fordyce came out shooting in the fourth quarter, with Fordyce scoring five points in less than one minute.

Gaston's pressure defense worked for them as they forced bad passes and low percentage shots by the Bobcats. The Greyhounds even scored off bad inbound passes by the Bobcats and caused them to commit 10-second violations twice.

In the end however, the deficit was too much to overcome and they were only able to close the gap to 11.

Despite their 21 points in the fourth quarter to Nestucca's 11, the Greyhounds were not able to pull out the win and will settle for another loss.

When asked what the focus will be for this weeks practice coach King had this to say: 'We will be scrimmaging now that we have 10 guys on the court, and we will work on taking more shots with in your face defense.'

The Greyhounds will take on a league opponent in the No. 1 ranked team out of Portland Christian Academy on Thursday before a spirited game on Friday against the alumni of Gaston high school.