Mount Olive's men fall to USC Aiken

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on December 8, 2013 1:52 AM

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rhanchett@newsargus.com

MOUNT OLIVE -- USC-Aiken started slowly, but recovered in time for a 71-60 win over Mount Olive College on Saturday afternoon.

The Pacers improved to 7-2 behind a 16-point effort from DeVonte Wright and a double-double from Alvin Brown.

"We played well at times and overall I would say we are close," Mount Olive head coach Joey Higginbotham said. "There are some things we need to clean up, free throws, turnovers and things like that, but USC-Aiken is a very good team and we played toe-to-toe with them most of the game."

The first half started perfectly for the Trojans as Dominique Reed asserted himself under the basket and the Pacers had trouble stopping Mount Olive's dribble penetration. The Trojans scored 22 of their first 29 points in the paint and jumped ahead 29-20.

USC-Aiken regrouped and foul trouble began to wear on the Mount Olive front court. With Reed relegated to the bench with two fouls, the Pacers stormed back with a 19-6 run to end the half and seized a 39-35 lead.

"Aiken's big guys started to hurt us there at the end of the half on both ends," Higginbotham said. "They were able to get the ball underneath and make some easy shots and they clogged the paint on defense and forced us to adjust."

USC-Aiken took control in the opening minutes of the second half.

A pair of dunks from Brown pushed the visitors ahead 53-41 with 13:49 left in the game. Mount Olive used an 8-0 run to pull within 58-54 with six minutes to play. That is as close as the Trojans would get. Back-to-back buckets from Shane Porchae sealed the win for the Pacers.

"We had chances to pull even but we didn't make the most of them," Higginbotham said. "Hopefully we learned some things today and we will be ready to go tomorrow at ECU."

Reed led the Trojans with 18 points. Dontrell Brite added 16 points. Mike Moore rounded-out the Trojans in double figures with 10 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.

Mount Olive (5-3) travels to Greenville today to take on East Carolina.Game time is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Minges Coliseum.