Dontrell Brite led the University of Mount Olive with 16 points but the Trojans fell to King University 91-73 in Bristol, Tenn. for Conference Carolinas men's basketball Saturday afternoon. The game was on National Television on the CBS Sports Network. Mount Olive had a 12 point lead, but two big runs by King was too much for the Trojans to bounce back from.
Mount Olive's (11-2 Overall, 4-1 Conference Carolinas) offensive stalled at the beginning of the game as King University (9-2, 4-0) went on an 8-0 run. Mike Moore stopped the run with a rebound put back jumper with 17:33 left in the opening period. The Trojans responded with eight unanswered points of their own bringing the deficit to three.
The Trojans came back to settle the Tornado offensive storm with a momentum shifting 9-0 run that started at the 10:48 mark that gave Mount Olive the lead 21-18. Mount Olive pulled out to a seven point lead before King brought it back to two on back-to-back possessions with 3:44.
John Wieland hit a wide open three to push Mount Olive back to a six point lead with 1:15 to go. King got fouled with just two seconds before the halftime buzzer and made good on two free throw opportunities. The Trojans led at the half 35-31.
JaQuan Blount started the opening possession for Mount Olive with a three right in front of the Trojan bench and Mount Olive led 38-31. Kendall Hargrove went in the air on a lead pass from Blount and slammed home the alley-op to give the Trojans an eight point lead 18:51.
Brite picked the pocket of a King player and laid up a wide open shot and Mount Olive had a 10 point lead. Dominique Reed followed suit seconds later with a lay-up and the Trojans had their highest lead of the game at 12.
King's offensive came back with a roar as they went on a 12-0 run to tie the game up at 50 with 11:27 left.
Blount was fouled from beyond the arch and made 2-of-3 free throws and put Mount Olive up by two. The two teams went back and forth until Blount hit a three with just over 9:30 left to go as the Trojans went up by three. Brite got a lay-up off a steal to push Mount Olive ahead by five.
Four points by King took the Trojan lead to one with 7:48. Reed picked up a free throw but Drew Standifer helped the Tornado tie the game once again with a pair of free throws.
King regained the lead for the first time since the 8:57 mark of the first period off a Standifer lay-up. King extended the lead to seven with a three-pointer from Logan Lyle 72-65, 5:19 left in the second half.
Mount Olive got the lead down to four with 4:14 remaining; however King scored four unanswered points to push them ahead further.
Blount found an open three from the corner and Mount Olive trailed by five 72-77 with 2:40 to go.
King was fouled twice and went 2-for-4 from the line and added a jumper and pushed ahead by nine with a minute left to play. The Tornado finished the game on a 10-0 run in the final 1:30 of the game. Mount Olive was out-scored 53-23 after the Trojans had a 12 point lead.
Brite finished the afternoon with 16 points and eight assists. Reed had 15 points, Blount with 14 and Hargrove rounded out four Trojans in double figures with a double-double, 12 points and 10 boards.
Brite gave his thoughts on the team's performance as a whole in the loss and what it was like playing on National television in his post-game interview.
"It felt like a normal game to me honestly, but as a team I thought we could have done better defensively. We were good when we made our run but then we started fouling and it went downhill from there. We all played hard as a collective unit".
Also he gave some insight into what he believed led to the team's loss of focus later in the second period.
"I kept hearing coach Chaney (Assistant coach Allen Chaney)say stop switching so I believe the bigs were switching in the back or someone was switching. We just need to communicate more and that will solve all the problems back there".
Brite finished the afternoon with 16 points and eight assists. Reed had 15 points, Blount with 14 and Hargrove rounded out four Trojans in double figures with a double-double, 12 points and 10 boards.
Head Coach Joey Higginbotham talked as well about the performance and his key to the loss through a coach's eyes.
"It was a good ballgame we just lost our intensity when we lost the double digit lead and got some guys into foul trouble. Down the stretch we did not do the things we needed to win the game. In the first half when we were down we did what we needed to do, we guarded our tails off and we got away from that. King is a good ball club and they make you pay when you do things you are not supposed to do and they made us pay.
We started switching things we had not been switching all game on defense and that snowballed into being bad offensively. We have to be a better team on the road and this is going to show a lot of our character having a short turn around playing tomorrow".
James Scales led the Tornado with 22 points. Hunter LeVeau had 13 and Logan Lyle had 10.
Mount Olive has a quick turn-around as the will head down to Banner Elk, N.C. to face Lees-McRae tomorrow. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.