Chris Commons finished with a game-high 27 points and No. 11 USC Aiken picked up an 88-69 Peach Belt Conference victory over Georgia Southwestern on Saturday afternoon at the Storm Dome.

Marcus Scott helmed the Georgia Southwestern attack, scoring a team-high 20 points.  Chris Rawls added 16 points and eight rebounds and Anthony Sargent chipped in 10 points for the Hurricanes.

Two other Pacers scored in double figures with Josh Dollard adding 17 points and nine rebounds and Kingsley Oguchi finishing with 12 points.

Commons guided the Pacers in the opening 10 minutes of Saturday's game, scoring 11 of USC Aiken's first 23 points. The 11 points helped the Pacers to enter the second and final media time out of the first half with a four-point advantage at 23-19.

USCA (9-3, 4-1 PBC) scored the next seven points over the next two minutes to take an 11-point lead at 30-19 with 7:49 left in the game.

The Hurricanes closed out the final six-plus minutes of the first half by cutting the USC Aiken lead to just three points at 40-37. Scott hit a long two-pointer at the first half buzzer from the right corner for Georgia Southwestern to cut the Pacer advantage to three.

Southwestern (5-7, 1-4 PBC) would open the second half on a 6-2 run to take the lead at 43-42 with just under 17 minutes left in the game. Over the next couple minutes, two thunderous dunks each by Georgia Southwestern's Rawls and USC Aiken's Dollard kept the game the same with the score still one point in favor of the Hurricanes at 49-48 with 14:31 left.

The Pacers would take over from there, pushing their lead to 19 points at 82-61 with 3:23 left in the game. The final three minutes would stay basically the same with USC Aiken emerging with the 19-point victory.

GSW travels to No. 16-ranked Clayton State on Wednesday.

PICTURED: Marcus Scott

PHOTO BY: Chris Fenn