November 30, 2006

Release contributed by Mount Olive Sports Information

Boxscore

MOUNT OLIVE, N.C.—St. Andrews junior forward Taiwon Grooms (Landover, Md.) and Mount Olive guard Elton Coffield matched each other by bucketing 19 points apiece for their respective teams, but the host Trojans went on to take the Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference men’s basketball tilt 87-71 at Kornegay Arena Thursday night.

Mount Olive (3-2 overall, 1-2 CVAC) scored 10 unanswered points to break a 2-2 tie and led the rest of the way. Kendrick Easley’s inside basket gave the Trojans their biggest lead of the first half at 33-22 with 3:37 remaining. But St. Andrews made a late run as senior swingman Richard Stone’s (Williamsburg, Va.) three-pointer from the left corner off of junior forward Marcus Hoke’s (Charlotte, N.C.) inbound pass with one second left pulled the Knights within 41-36 at halftime.

St. Andrews (2-3, 0-2) cut the lead to three early in the second half, but Elijah Rouse’s basket with 14:20 remaining gave Mount Olive a 54-44 lead and the Trojans led by double figures the remainder of the game. After Brandon Streeter found Lydell Walker all alone underneath for an uncontested dunk, Walker assisted on Streeter’s short jumper as Mount Olive took its biggest lead at 69-48 with 7:30 left in the contest. St. Andrews never got closer than 14 points.

Grooms, who hit 11-of-12 free throws for St. Andrews, tallied 19 points and seven rebounds. Hoke added 13 points, while Stone finished with 11 points. Junior point guard Jeff Worley (Charlotte, N.C.) dished out a game-high eight assists for the Knights. Sophomore forward Keith Josey (Suffolk, Va.) chipped in with five points, five rebounds, one block, and one steal.

Coffield pulled down seven rebounds and dished out six assists. Easley added 12 points for the freshman’s fifth consecutive double-figure game. Rouse added 18 points for the Trojans on 9-for-11 shooting, while Streeter scored all of his 16 points in the second half. The Trojans had their best shooting performance of the season, going 35-for-64 from the field for 54.7 percent.

Mount Olive returns to action Saturday as the Trojans play host to Limestone in a CVAC match-up. Tip-off is 4 p.m. at Kornegay Arena. St. Andrews plays host to Erskine Saturday at 4 p.m. in CVAC action.