Trojans hope to rebound at Limestone

Published in Sports on December 2, 2005 2:01 PM

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While the Mount Olive College men's basketball team is disappointed in losing its conference opener Tuesday night, the Trojans can take heart in one statistic: Mount Olive has the identical won-lost record it had at this time last year. And the Trojans went on to win 29 games and reach the Elite Eight.

Nationally sixth-ranked Mount Olive returns to action Saturday as the Trojans travel to Gaffney, S.C., to take on Limestone in Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference men's basketball. Tip-off is 7:30 p.m.

A live Audio Webcast is available on the Mount Olive College athletics web page at www.moc.edu/athletics.

Mount Olive (3-1 overall, 0-1 CVAC) is coming off a 95-80 loss at Queens Tuesday. The Trojans scored the first basket of the contest but never led again. Mount Olive trailed by 10 at halftime and pulled within seven in the second half before Queens scored 10 unanswered points to put the game away.

The Trojans hope to improve on Tuesday's shooting performance as Mount Olive was held to 40.8 percent from the floor and 4-for-23 shooting from three-point range. The Trojans also hurt themselves from the free throw line, going 14-for-23 (60.1 percent) after shooting 74 percent from the line in their first three games.

Guards Elton Coffield and Melvin Creddle share the Trojans' scoring lead with 16.5 points per game. Coffield scored a season-high 23 points Tuesday against Queens. Victor Young is averaging 14.5 points per contest. All three players have reached double figures in each of Mount Olive's first four games.

Limestone (2-2, 1-0) opened conference play Tuesday with a 61-55 win at Coker. Junior center Sumner Benton scored 20 points for the Saints.

Mount Olive won both meetings last year, 70-62 at Limestone and 89-66 at Mount Olive. The Trojans had to rally from a 10-point halftime deficit for the win on the road.

Mount Olive was 3-1 at this time last year as the Trojans embarked on a seven-game winning streak, the first of three winning streaks of at least seven games during the 2004-05 season.