Box Score DAHLONEGA, Ga. – The University of South Carolina Aiken men's basketball team claimed a 85-79 Peach Belt Conference road victory over North Georgia on Monday evening at the Memorial Hall Gymnasium.
The win allowed USC Aiken (10-5, 6-2 PBC) to remain tied with Armstrong Atlantic State (10-5, 6-2 PBC) for first place in the Peach Belt Conference East Division.
North Georgia (10-5, 5-3 PBC) commenced the game by racing out to a 6-1 advantage over the first couple of minutes. The Pacers would then go on a quick 8-0 spurt to own a 9-6 lead with just under 16 minutes to play in the first stanza.
North Georgia would then battle its way back into the game, owning a 22-21 lead with 10:31 remaining in the first half of action.
USC Aiken would get the lead back shortly thereafter, eventually going on a 12-1 run to own a 33-23 advantage with 8:32 left until the halftime break.
The Pacers would take as much as a 15-point lead down the stretch of the first half, but by intermission the Saints had whittled the USC Aiken advantage down to five points at 44-39.
Ronald Zimmerman led the Pacers in the first half with 16 points. In claiming the 16 points in the first half, Zimmerman nailed five 3-pointers and a free throw as part of an eventual four-point play.
The Pacers as a team ended the first half shooting 58.6 percent (17-for-29). North Georgia closed out the first half of action shooting 48.5 percent (16-of-33) as a team.
North Georgia would close the Pacer lead to just two points at 65-63 with 6:57 remaining in the second half.
The Pacers would then go on a 7-0 run courtesy of seven straight points from DeVontae Wright to pull ahead 72-63 with under five minutes to play in the game.
The Saints would get as close as three in the latter minutes of the game before USC Aiken pulled away for the six-point win.
Nine Pacers scored in the game in total. Three ended the game in double figures.
Zimmerman (Columbia, S.C./Spring Valley HS) finished with a team-high 21 points in the contest. He hit six 3-pointers in the game. Zimmerman was 7-for-12 (6-of-9 beyond the arc) from the field in the contest.
Wright (Goose Creek, S.C./The Citadel) ended his evening with 15 points, four rebounds and three steals.
The final Pacer in double figures was Paul Larsen (Mooresville, N.C./Mercer), who ended the USC Aiken victory with his third straight double-double with 13 points and a game-best 10 rebounds.
Pacer point guard Re'mon Nelson (Columbus, Ohio/Canal Winchester HS) finished the game with eight points, eight rebounds and five assists. Nelson now has 995 points in his career. He needs just five points to become the 10th player in USC Aiken's Division II era to score 1,000 or more points.
Scott Windom came off the bench for North Georgia to lead four Saints in double figures. Windom concluded his efforts on the evening with a game-high 22 points.
USC Aiken ended its win shooting 47.4 percent (27-for-57) as a team. The Pacers connected on 47.6 percent (10-for-21) of their 3-point attempts as a team in the game.
The Pacers shot 72.4 percent (21-for-29) from the free throw line as a team in the game.
North Georgia ended its loss to the Pacers shooting 46 percent (29-for-63) as a team. The Saints shot 28.6 percent (6-of-21) from beyond the arc in the game.
North Georgia shot 71.4 percent (15-of-21) as a team from the charity stripe in the game.
USC Aiken will next return to the friendly confines of the Convocation Center to face off against Georgia College at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 24. The contest will serve as USC Aiken's final game against Peach Belt Conference West Division opposition in the 2012-13 regular-season.
