MOUNT OLIVE, North Carolina - The University of Mount Olive men's basketball team defeated the Saints of Limestone College 71-70 in Kornegay Arena on Tuesday night in Conference Carolinas men's basketball action. UMO improves to 6-4, 2-2 on the season, while Limestone falls to 1-11, 0-5.

GAME INFORMATION
Mount Olive continued its momentum from a road victory against Erskine to level itself in the conference and at home.

INSIDE THE SCORE
Mount Olive came out of the gates hot taking the first 10 points of the game forcing Limestone to call a timeout. Following the timeout, the Saints hit a three-pointer and a layup to cut the lead in half with over 15:30 remaining in the opening half. Following an LC bucket with under 14 minutes to play UMO mounted a 16-to-5 run just prior to the under eight media was called with 6:52 left in the first half and Mount Olive led 30-11. The two squads exchanged baskets for the remainder of the half but the Trojans held their double-digit lead into the break leading 40-25.

For a majority of the second half, Mount Olive held their double-digit lead as Limestone continued to chip away and finally broke the Trojans with 6:58 as the Saints knocked down a three-pointer to draw the deficit to eight, 62-54. That slight bit of momentum was short-lived as Mount Olive then followed that up with an 11-to-2 run, which included two technical fouls against the Saints, and the lead was once again back to over 10. That run proved to be the final blow as Limestone never recovered and UMO cruised to an 81-66 victory.

MOUNT OLIVE LEADERS
The Trojans were led by Jonathan Mebane with 18 points. Close on his heals was Matthias Caver with 17 points and seven rebounds. Darius Spragley and Johnny Hughes III also added double-digit points with 15 and 10 points respectively.

LIMESTONE LEADERS
The Saints were led by Rudy Bibb-Boyd with a team-high 16 points.

KEY MOMENT
The key moments of the game came in two runs a 16-to-5 run in the first half and an 11-to-2 run in the second helped grab two different trends of momentum away from Limestone and seal the win for UMO.

UP NEXT
Mount Olive remains at home in Kornegay Arena as they will host Emmanuel College. UMO and Emmanuel will meet on Saturday, Dec. 14, at 7:30 PM in a Conference Carolinas contest.