Royals upset No. 6 Mount Olive in men's action

Published in Sports on November 30, 2005 2:02 PM

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CHARLOTTE -- Mount Olive trailed by 10 at halftime and never got any closer than seven points in the second half Tuesday evening as the nationally sixth-ranked Trojans fell 95-80 to Queens.

Elton Coffield led all scorers with a season-high 23 points. The loss was the first of the season for the Trojans, which posted an 18-2 record in conference play last season.

Mount Olive (3-1 overall, 0-1 CVAC) scored the game's first points on a basket by freshman Justin Melton, who made his first collegiate start. But Queens (3-1, 1-0) answered with an 11-2 run and Mount Olive never led again.

Queens led by as many as 15 points in the first half before back-to-back three-pointers by Victor Young sparked a 9-0 run and pulled the Trojans within 23-17 with 6:42 left before halftime. But Mount Olive got no closer and Chris Bernard's basket in the final seconds gave Queens a 44-34 lead at the break.

Bernard opened the second half with a three-pointer and the Royals went on to build the lead to 61-45 with 14:12 remaining. The margin stayed at double digits until Melvin Creddle's basket with 8:26 left in the game capped a 10-3 run and pulled the Trojans within 66-59.

But Queens dashed all hopes of a comeback by scoring the next 10 points as Pierre Stines hit two free throws to give the Royals their biggest lead at 76-59 with 5:48 left in the game. The Trojans never got any closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

Young finished with 12 points, while Creddle added 11 points for Mount Olive. The Trojans were for 4-for-23 from three-point range and shot 40.8 percent from the field for the game.

Kendrick Harris led six Queens players in double figures with 16 points, while Bernard finished with 15 points. Shamoni Faulkner dished out a game-high 11 assists.

Mount Olive returns to action Saturday as the Trojans head to Gaffney, S.C., to take on Limestone in CVAC action. Tipoff is 7:30 p.m.