Trojan men conclude regular season Saturday at Lees-McRae

Published in Sports on February 24, 2006 2:18 PM

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The Mount Olive men's basketball team put together its most emotional win of the season earlier this week. The Trojans need to make sure they don't have a letdown in their final game before the conference tournament.

Regionally sixth-ranked Mount Olive concludes regular season play Saturday as the Trojans travel to Banner Elk to take on Lees-McRae in Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference men's basketball. Tipoff is 4 p.m.

Mount Olive (21-5 overall, 15-4 CVAC) is coming off a 105-89 victory over Pfeiffer Monday in the Trojans' regular season home finale. Senior guard and Goldsboro High School graduate Victor Young celebrated Senior Night with the best game of his collegiate career, pouring in 38 points and pulling down nine rebounds.

Young opened the game with one of his trademark alley-oop slam dunks and went on to score the Trojans' first 10 points. Young, whose best single-game total of the season had been 22 points, already had 22 points by halftime. His three-pointer midway through the second half ended a Pfeiffer run as Mount Olive led by double digits for the entire second half.

The game also broke a scoring slump for Trojan scoring leader Elton Coffield, who scored 18 of his 26 points in the second half. Coffield, who has worn protective face gear in his last six games due to a facial injury suffered against St. Andrews on January 30, had been held to single digits in his previous four contests.

Mount Olive celebrated the careers of seniors Young, Melvin Creddle, Maurice Horton and Chuckie Jefferson. Horton entered the game with 998 career points and reached the 1,000-point mark in the early minutes of the game.

Monday, however, was not entirely a night of celebration for Mount Olive. Trojan starting forward Elijah Rouse missed the game after suffering a serious cut on his leg, caused by a freak accident while stretching in the locker room prior to the game. His status is listed as day-to-day.

Lees-McRae (6-20, 4-15) is coming off an 87-72 loss at home Thursday against Queens. The game was a make-up contest from a previous date that was canceled due to snow.

Mount Olive has beaten Lees-McRae twice this season at Kornegay Arena, both times reaching the 100-point mark. Last year at Banner Elk, the Trojans had to rally from a 12-point deficit for a 93-83 win.

Regardless of Saturday's outcomes in the CVAC, Mount Olive has clinched the No. 2 seed in next week's CVAC Tournament. The Trojans earn a first-round bye and will open play Wednesday as the Trojans play host to a quarterfinal-round match-up at Kornegay Arena.

MOC Sports Information