AIKEN, S.C. -- Chris Commons led five players in double figures in No. 15 USC Aiken's 85-67 victory over Georgia Southwestern on Saturday at the Convocation Center.
The victory improves the Pacers to 17-5 overall on the year. USC Aiken is now 12-3 in the Peach Belt Conference. The Hurricanes fall to 9-14 overall and 5-11 in PBC play.
Anthony Sargent and Chris Rawls led three Hurricanes in double figures in the loss to USC Aiken, both finished with a team-high 13 points. Sedale McGee-Jones added 10.
Commons was 8-for-11 from the field in the win. Cody Ballard led four Pacers who finished with just over 10 points in the win over the Hurricanes. Casey McMasters came off the bench to score 11. Javonte Clanton and Kingsley Oguchi rounded out the Pacers in double digits in the game with each posting 10 points in the win.
USC Aiken shot better than 50 percent from the floor in both halves of the Georgia Southwestern victory, shooting a scorching 53.8 percent (28-for-52) from the field overall in the game. Georgia Southwestern shot 49 percent (24-for-49), but the Pacers' 47.6 percent (10-of-21) shooting from beyond the arc was one of the stories of the game.
In total, the Pacers shot almost 20 percent better than the Hurricanes (29.4) from beyond the arc, but the Pacers were able to knock down five more three-pointers (10-5) in the game with their strong effort.
The lead changed hands three times in the first half, but that was all in the opening two minutes with Georgia Southwestern's largest lead coming at two points with 19:38 left in the first half.
The Pacers went up by as many as 16 points in the half, entering halftime with a 13-point 47-34 lead.
The second half would open with the Hurricanes going on an 11-2 run to start the half to cut the Pacer advantage to 49-45 with 17:26 left in the game.
However, the Pacers pushed their lead to as many as 22 points
with 3:21 left in the game before settling on the 18-point win over
the Hurricanes.
GSW travels to North Georgia on Monday for a PBC matchup with the
Saints.