MOC men knock off Limestone

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on January 26, 2013 11:03 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- At one point in the second half, Limestone head coach Brandon Scott yelled out to his starting center Phillip Moultrie.

"Get points, that is all we care about," Scott shouted.

Scott would have been better served yelling for his team to get defensive stops instead. Mount Olive College scored almost at will throughout a 99-78 thrashing of Limestone (S.C.) College inside Kornegay Arena on Saturday afternoon.

The Trojans improved to 8-8 overall and 5-5 in Conference Carolinas play.

"We really felt good about our offense and you could see that on the guys faces early on," Mount Olive head coach Joey Higginbotham said. "We got points off of our defense and we knocked down some shots in the half court that got us going."

Mount Olive opened the game on an 13-2 run.

The Trojans converted on four of their first five offensive possessions and controlled the tempo with their full-court defense. The Saints trailed 23-9 by the 10-minute mark.

The Limestone offense was never in sync as the Saints' guards continuously turned the ball over in the half court and the forwards were badly out-rebounded by Mount Olive. The visitors' saving grace was the 3-point line, where they connected on 5-of-7 attempts.

Mount Olive led 46-31 at halftime.

The second half started just like the first.

It took Limestone just four seconds to register a turnover, which Jordan McCain turned into two points.

"I thought we played better in the first half than we did in the second," Higginbotham said. "We got away from our defensive pressure a little bit in the second half and gave up 47 points."

The Trojans scored on six consecutive possessions midway through the second half and increased their lead to 74-54. From that point the game was never in doubt.

Higginbotham played every player in uniform over the final five minutes of the rout.

"We got everybody involved and tonight's win was truly a team win," Higginbotham said. "Every guy that went out there contributed something."

McCain led the Trojans with 18 points. Deshaune Greene and Darrell Patterson each added 14 points in the win. Kendall Hargrove tallied 12 points and six rebounds.

Charles Blue pace Limestone with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Joe Raga and Mike Barrett each added 11 points for the Saints.

Mount Olive plays host to nationally-ranked Barton on Thursday. Tip-off is 7:30 p.m.