Ty Wallace scored 15 of her career-high 21 points in the second half as University of Mount Olive defeated tournament host Queens University of Charlotte 54-44 in the final day of the SAC/Conference Carolinas Women's Basketball Challenge Saturday at Charlotte, N.C. The Trojans salvaged a split in the two tournament games.
Mount Olive (1-1) scored the first nine points of the second half to break away from a three-point halftime lead as the Trojans led by double figures for virtually the entire second half. Wallace hit a pair of layups in the first minute of the second half and the senior forward connected on her first-ever collegiate three-point attempt to give the Trojans a 38-26 lead with 13:42 left to play.
Shy'lia Buie's basket with 10:33 remaining gave Mount Olive its biggest lead at 46-27. Queens (0-2) got as close as 10 points as McKell Oliverio's three-pointer and Lacey Singletary's steal and layup pulled the Royals within 48-38 with 6:34 left. Mount Olive then held Queens without a field goal for more than five minutes to build the lead back up to 15 points. Queens scored the last five points in the final 90 seconds of the contest.
The first half saw five lead changes in the first 10 minutes before Mount Olive used an 11-2 run to take the lead for good. Buie's three-pointer with 3:07 remaining capped the run and gave the Trojans a 21-16 lead. Queens pulled within a single point, but Arieal Johnson's jumper with 41 seconds left gave Mount Olive a 23-20 advantage at the break.
Wallace was 7-for-9 from the field in the second half and 10-for-13 for the game. Gabby Griffin added 10 points for the Trojans, while Anamaria Zjacic pulled down eight of her game-high 10 rebounds in the second half as the Trojans outrebounded the Royals 47-28. Zjacic also dished out a career-high six assists.
Queens was led by Oliverio, Singletary and Carmen Richardson with nine points apiece.
Saturday's meeting was the first between Mount Olive and Queens since the Royals left Conference Carolinas for the South Atlantic Conference after the 2012-13 season.
Mount Olive gets an early jump on Conference Carolinas play as the Trojans travel to Misenheimer, N.C., Wednesday to take on Pfeiffer. The Trojans swept the regular season series last year. Tip-off is 5:30 p.m.