Coming off two straight wins, the GC men’s basketball team took on 14-4 Lander at home on Wednesday, Jan. 25.

The Bobcats, after getting off to a hot start, fell to the Lander Bearcats 69-54, putting an end to their two-game win streak.

The Bobcats received unfortunate news moments before the game. Sophomore guard Zyair Greene could not play due to personal issues. This was a big blow, as the former Peach Belt Conference Player of the Week was a big part of the recent success that the team has had.

Despite not having Greene, the game got off to a great start for the Bobcats when sophomore forward Austin Sloan capitalized on a fast break dunk that erupted the crowd, giving them an 8-2 lead and momentum.

“Those are the types of plays you go to bed thinking about, and that dunk will definitely be one that I remember for a while,” Sloan said.

The Bobcats lost their lead at 11-10 and were down at the half 40-30.

The second half got off to a slow start for the Bobcats, as they went down 48-30. They narrowed that gap and brought it back to an eight point game midway through the second half, but that would be the closest they would come.

The team got into the bonus with nine minutes left in the game, but they would struggle at the free throw line, shooting a poor 50 percent for the game.

Despite a couple of scoring runs, the Bearcats had an answer to it every time and won the game 69-54.

“I never like to overreact until I see the film,” said head coach Ryan Aquino. “I felt like there were times where our effort was there, and there were times when we showed no effort, and I feel like that was a big reason why we lost this game.”

With the team missing some players, redshirt-freshman guard Ian Davis earned a starting spot and led the team in rebounds with seven along with scoring 13 points. The freshman really stepped up in his first start of the season and will look to see a bigger role for the rest of the year.

The spotlight of the team was redshirt-freshman guard Brenden Rigsbee. Coming off last game’s double-double, where he scored 25 points and grabbed ten rebounds, the team looked to get him the ball as often as they could. 

Rigsbee ended the game with 14 points, leading the team but struggled at the free-throw line, going 0-1. 

“I just want to focus game by game because we have a huge game coming up on Saturday that we must win, and I need to start making more free throws,” Rigsbee said.

The Bobcats are back in action Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m., where they will travel to Flagler for their rivalry matchup.