FRANKLIN SPRINGS, Georgia - The University of Mount Olive men's basketball team fell to the Lions of Emmanuel College 93-91 in overtime in Conference Carolinas action Saturday night. The loss snaps a six-game winning streak for the Trojans. UMO falls to 14-8 overall and 8-6 in conference, while Emmanuel improves to 12-9, 9-4.
INSIDE THE SCORE
The Mount Olive Trojans started the contest on a 5-0 lead all by way of Darius Spragley before Emmanuel stopped the run at the 18:16 mark. The Lions countered with eight points and took a 8-5 lead, that was tied on a Jonathan Mebane three-pointer at the 16:10 mark. The lead went onto change hands eight times over the next 13 minutes before UMO took the lead for the remainder of the half. Spragley hit a three-pointer that began a 9-0 run at the 3:17 mark and it gave Mount Olive enough space to hold onto the lead including taking the final five points of the half as the Trojans took a 41-33 advantage into the break.
Emmanuel began the second half scoring the first four points to draw within four. Mount Olive, however, kept the lead expanding to as large as 14 and held the lead for almost the entire half until the Lions were able to tie the game with 42 seconds left and force overtime.
In overtime, Emmanuel broke the tie and picked up the first bucket but it was short-lived as UMO tied the game at 85 on two free-throws. The Lions then went onto score six unanswered forcing a Mount Olive timeout. Coming out of the stoppage the Trojans scored four straight to draw within two at 91-89 with 1:10 left in overtime. The two squads exchanged a pair of free throws and after two missed free-throws by EC a defensive rebound by Jonathan Mebane set up a chance for UMO to put up a last chance shot. The shot would go off from the Trojans but it would hit the cylinder and be corralled by Emmanuel and the final horn sounded.
MOUNT OLIVE LEADERS
The Trojans were led by Johnny Hughes III with 25 points. Darius Spragley, Cameron Robinson, Jonathan Mebane, and Alan Treakle all had double-digit scoring performances with 19, 12, 11, and 10 points respectively.
EMMANUEL LEADERS
The Lions were led by Brandon Simpson with a team-high 23 points.
KEY MOMENT
The key moment of the game came in overtime when the Lions scored six straight giving them enough of a cushion to withhold the Trojans come back and take the 93-91 win.
UP NEXT
Mount Olive will host archrival Barton College inside Kornegay Arena on February 5 at 7:30 p.m.