MOC men roll past Lees-McRae

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 10, 2013 1:51 AM

• Print
• Email

MOUNT OLIVE -- The thoroughbreds answered the bell out of the gate.

And Mount Olive galloped all night.

Seven Trojans scored during the first 10 minutes of a 95-64 thumping of Conference Carolinas foe Lees-McRae in the nightcap of the 30th annual MOC Basketball Church Night contested at inside a fan-packed Kornegay Arena on Saturday evening.

Mahamed Ibrahim, Deshaune Green, Darrell Patterson and John Wieland each emerged with 13 points for Mount Olive, which prevailed for the 10th time in its last 12 outings.

"We love Church Night and it's great for our guys to play in front of a packed house," Trojans head coach Joey Higginbotham said. "We wanted a little 'white out' (fans wearing all white T-shirts), but we didn't get it. We appreciate all the support and hopefully some of them will come back for the next game."

Mount Olive's gameplan involved starting strong from the opening tap and not gambling in the passing lanes.

The Trojans did just that.

Ibrahim swished two 3-pointers and converted an offensive putback during MOC's game-opening, 14-3 run. The Bobcats answered on two of their next three possessions, but the game quickly got away from the second-worst team in the league.

Darrell Patterson's 3-pointer and Deshaune Green's layup off Dory Hines assist started a short, 9-2 run. The Trojans flourished in transition, attacked the basket and extended their advantage to 57-34 at halftime.

"We've got to play aggressive basketball, got to play 94 feet of offense and defense," Higginbotham said. "I thought we did a good job tonight of sitting down fundamentally, not playing to the scoreboard and making us better in the long run.

"I was really proud of that."

Mount Olive (12-9 overall, 8-6 CC) played most of its reserves in the second half and got nine points from Wieland, who played 18 total minutes. The freshman guard from Pittsboro was one of nine bench players to account for 56 of the Trojans' points.

Lees-McRae (2-18) succumbed to 25 turnovers which led to 31 points. The Bobcats shot a woeful 29 percent in the second half and lost their 12th conference game of the season.