(GDN)-The final six teams are set for the 2022 Conference Carolinas Men’s Basketball Championship in Spartanburg, South Carolina as fifth-seeded Mount Olive and sixth-seeded Barton both advanced to Friday’s quarterfinals.
In Mount Olive, North Carolina, the host Trojans overcame a nine-point, 46-37, halftime deficit to down the ninth-seeded Patriots of Francis Marion 95-83. FMU scored the first five points of the game and led by as many as 11 points in the first half, but the Trojans used an 18-4 run over the first 4:31 of the second half to take a 55-50 lead at the 15:29 mark. The Patriots tied the score at 57, but Mount Olive used a 12-2 run to push the lead to 10, 69-59, and never trailed again.
Darius Spragley paced the Trojans’ offense with 22 points while Alan Treakle added 16 and Michael Brown and Jeremiah Phifer each netted 14. Nick Silva led all scorers with 26 for the Patriots while three others scored in double figures led by Ja’Von Anderson’s 16.
Playing in front of the home crowd in Barton, North Carolina, the Bulldogs used an 8-0 run near the end of the first half to propel them to a 94-75 win and a spot in the final six. Barton scored the first five points of the game but Lees-McRae responded and led several times in the first 15 minutes. However, eight consecutive points from Marcus Boykin helped the home team turn a 22-21 deficit into a 28-22 lead and they never looked back. In fact, the Bulldogs outscored the Bobcats 24-7 over a 7:41 stretch of game time from the 4:31 mark in the first half to the 16:50 mark of the second to take a 16-point, 45-29 lead that they would not relinquish.
Trevon Spencer scored a game-high 25 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds for the Bulldogs. Boykin finished with 20 points while four others finished in double figures. Drew Gardner led the Bobcats with 19 points and eight rebounds while Sidney Dollar added 17.
Barton will face third-seeded Belmont Abbey in the first men’s quarterfinal inside Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium on the campus of Wofford College in Spartanburg on Friday, March 4 at 11 a.m. Mount Olive will square off against No. 4 Southern Wesleyan in the second men’s quarterfinal at 1:30 p.m.
