Confident Pacers looking for more

USC Aiken's run to a Peach Belt Conference Tournament championship comprised three victories against men's basketball teams it lost to in regular-season play.

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But the Pacers open the next level of postseason competition, the NCAA Division II Tournament, against a team they actually beat.

USC Aiken knocked off Georgia College & State with a four-point road victory one month ago. It will try to do the same on a bigger stage today, when the two teams meet at noon at Augusta State's Christenberry Fieldhouse.

There might not be two more opposite teams squaring off in Round 1. USC Aiken, which played below the program's past standards in the regular season with a 16-10 record, will enter the tournament riding a wave of momentum after rattling off a pair of upset wins on its way to the conference tournament title.

Georgia College & State posted a 22-4 regular-season mark to claim the top seed in the Western Division but was upset in the first round by Clayton State.

The Bobcats have had 10 days to think about the loss. The Pacers spent that time earning an unlikely conference title, and the expectations have only increased since.

USC Aiken coach Vince Alexander said his team's confidence has also gone up.

"You can see the intensity in Kevin Willis in every practice," he said. "You can see the intensity in Seth Leonard and Rashad Flowers, Casey (McMasters) and Mark Brown, which are guys that we really need."

Willis, a junior forward in his first full season with the team, has played his way into the starting lineup and added a spark in the conference tournament. Another junior, Byron Faison, leads the team in scoring, but the Pacers still rely heavily on three seniors: Leonard, McMasters and Brown.

Without a clear-cut offensive star for the first time in at least two years, the Pacers have reached their third national tournament in three years with a team mentality that emphasizes effort and intensity.

"I firmly believe that hustle is going to bring good fortune," Faison said. "We're giving a lot of hustle out there, and when we're out on the floor we're constantly reminding each other, let's give it all."

The Pacers will need the extra effort against a Bobcats team featuring senior guards Jake Rios, who leads the conference in 3-point shooting at 49.7 percent, and Graham Martin, fifth in the conference in scoring at 15.6 points per game.

No one came close to those numbers in the regular season for USC Aiken.

"We were young (in the regular season), and we had a lot of work to do," McMasters said. "We know what we have to do now. We've got to play well and stop the mistakes. Hard work makes up for a lot of mistakes, and I'd rather learn that when we did instead of this part of the season."