Trojan men earn regular-season sweep of Pfeiffer

By Cam Ellis
Published in Sports on January 10, 2015 11:52 PM

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cellis@newsargus.com

MOUNT OLIVE -- University of Mount Olive turned in perhaps its finest defensive performance during a 58-42 romp over Pfeiffer University on Saturday afternoon.

The No. 24-ranked Trojans forced the Falcons into a season-high 24 turnovers. The effort drew raves from UMO head coach Joey Higginbotham.

"Our defense always has to be there," he said. "I thought we did a pretty good job -- a lot better in the second half -- making them take contested shots. And late in the shot clock, we didn't have the mental lapses we sometimes have.

"It was kind of a drag out game to start, so to get it up to (a 20-point lead) early in the second half was key."

UMO scored 14 points off Pfeiffer's turnovers.

"We've been taking care of the ball and today we turned it over a lot," Pfeiffer coach Jeremy Currier said. "Twenty-four is our season high. Mount Olive was a big part of that, they played great defense.

"Mount Olive does a great job with verticality and protecting the rim without fouling."

John Weiland came off the bench to lead the Trojans in scoring with 15 points -- all on 3-pointers. Fellow reserve Tayon Gleaves added 11 points. Jordan McCain scored nine points, while Kendall Hargrove had seven points and 10 rebounds.

Mike Moore did not play due to an ankle injury.

On the offensive end, the Trojans' guards did a good job finding the lanes and causing Pfeiffer's defense to collapse. That opened up the perimeter for UMO's wing players, who shot 11 of 27 from beyond the arc.

"I thought we settled for that a little too much early," Higginbotham said. "We have guys that we know are going to shoot three's... but we settled for it a little too much."

"We don't need half of our shots coming from three."

But the bench play pleased Higginbotham.

"John Wieland stepped up," he said. "Tayon Gleaves has been playing great lately. That gets us a little bit deeper, and we need to get deeper. We've been playing seven guys, and we need to get to eight or hopefully nine guys that can play double digit minutes.

"Now that John has the confidence, it's going to help us. It's going to add another dimension to us."

AJ Clark led Pfeiffer with 19 points on 7 of 18 shooting. De'Vonte Jenkins added 14 points.

The Trojans (14-2 overall, 7-1 CC) plays at home Wednesday against Belmont Abbey.