A Pacer stampede

A Pacer stampede

The Georgia Southwestern men's basketball team fell behind early and was unable to recover Monday evening in a 77-48 defeat at USC Aiken.  

The Hurricanes, playing their Peach Belt Conference opener, jumped to an early 4-2 lead three minutes into the game; but a 19-2 USCA run in which GSW missed six straight shots over six possessions then committed four turnovers over the following five trips down the court, opened the game for the Pacers.

Compounding the problems, USC Aiken shot a blistering 61.5 percent from the floor (16-of-26) in the half to take a 42-14 lead into the break.   

USCA continued its hot-shooting in the second period, opening the lead up to 39 points on a couple of occasions, the last at 65-26.

GSW finished the final 9:44 on a 22-12 run sparked by 11 points from Chris Rawls.

The Hurricanes were held without a three-point basket (0-for-15) for the first time since November 4, 2005.

USC Aiken controlled the boards (37-26), dished out more assists (19-5) and committed fewer turnovers (21-13) to even their PBC record to 1-1 and improve to 6-3 overall.

Rawls led Hurricane scorers for the seventh time this season with 19 points to go with a game-high seven rebounds.

Byron Faison came off the bench for USCA to lead all scorers with 20 points. Seth Leonard added 17 points and Mark Brown chipped in 11.

GSW (4-7, 0-1 PBC) hosts undefeated Montevallo (11-0, 1-0 PBC) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.