Men's Basketball 12/20/2006 7:00:00 PM UNCGSpartans.com

Hickman's 28 and Hines' 26th double-double lift Spartans past Saint Peter's

Box Score

GREENSBORO, NC Ricky Hickman finished with a game-high 28 points and Kyle Hines added his 26th career double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds to lead UNC Greensboro to a 79-58 win over Saint Peter's in men's basketball action Thursday night at Fleming Gym.

On his way to his 22nd career 20-point game, Hickman scored 12 of his points in the first 12:10 as UNCG (4-6) used a 24-0 run to break the game wide open. The win was UNCG's fourth in its last six games.

Hickman, a senior from Winston-Salem, NC, also became the 31st player in school history to grab 300 career rebounds, while Hines topped the 600-rebound mark for his career. Hines, who scored in double figures for the 31st straight game to extend his school record, also moved into fourth place on the Southern Conference's career blocks list at 215. The junior from Sicklerville, NJ is already UNCG's career record holder.

Saint Peter's (3-7) got 20 points from Kevin Spann and 17 points from Raul Orta. The Peacocks got to within eight in the second half after trailing by as many as 25 in the first half. But UNCG pulled away late for the easy win.

“I think sometimes in college basketball, you can get up by a big number of points almost too early because it becomes difficult to sustain,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “But we changed some defenses on them in the second half, took them out of their rhythm and eventually stretched the lead back out again.”

The Spartans used a 24-0 run midway through that first half to take an 8-7 game and turn it into a 32-7 rout. Hickman had 10 of the 24 in the run, which saw the Peacocks go scoreless for eight minutes. The Peacocks missed 16 of their first 18 shots from the floor to open the game.

The Peacocks scored seven of the next 10 points to get the margin under 20, 33-14, after a deep three-pointer by Raul Orta with five minutes to play in the first half.

Saint Peter's then cut it to 14 just before half as Todd Sowell scored the last six points before the intermission, cutting the UNCG lead to 40-26 at the break. That trend continued to open the second half as Saint Peter's scored the first four points of the second half. Buckets by Spann and Sowell cut the margin to 10, forcing the Spartans to call a timeout just 46 second into the half.

After two Dwayne Johnson free throws, Spain knocked down a three-pointer to cut the margin to single-digits for the first time since the 11:45 mark of the first half. Spain cut it to eight on the next possession, connecting on three free throws after Hickman scored on a backdoor lay-up on the other end.

But that would be as close as the Peacocks would get as UNCG would eventually stretch the lead back to 21, starting with a 10-3 run to push it back to 54-39. Later, a 10-1 run would run the lead back to 20 after Saint Peter's got back to within 11. Saint Peter's would not get within a dozen the rest of the way.

UNCG will return to action on Saturday when it faces Delaware for a 2 pm match-up.

AGATE

UNCG 79, ST. PETER'S 58

ST. PETER'S (3-7) - Spann,Kevin 5-17 8-9 20; Orta,Raul 7-13 1-4 17; Sowell,Todd 2-6 5-6 9; Spitler,Tim 2-5 2-4 6; Reeves,Kinzey 1-1 0-0 3; Gooding,Akeem 1-3 1-2 3; Gore,Michael 0-0 0-0 0; Martin,Quentin 0-3 0-0 0; Brock,Brandon 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 18-52 17-25 58.

UNCG (4-6)

HICKMAN, Ricky 11-16 3-5 28; HINES, Kyle 6-17 7-11 19; KOIVISTO, Mikko 3-7 0-0 8; TONEY, Kendall 2-5 0-0 6; STYWALL, Ben 1-3 3-4 5; TOOMS, Bart 1-2 1-2 4; OLEKSIAK, Kevin 1-3 1-1 3; AKINOSHO, Matt 1-2 0-0 2; BROWN, Pete 0-2 2-2 2; JOHNSON, Dwayne 0-2 2-2 2; HARDIMAN, Mike 0-1 0-0 0; MOORE, Donald 0-0 0-0 0; VLAZNY, Greg 0-0 0-0 0; SIMMONS, Everson 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 26-62 19-27 79.

Halftime: UNCG 40-26. 3-point goals--St. Peter's 5-22 (Orta,Raul 2-6; Spann,Kevin 2-10; Reeves,Kinzey 1-1; Martin,Quentin 0-1; Brock,Brandon 0-3; Spitler,Tim 0-1), UNCG 8-22 (HICKMAN, Ricky 3-4; TONEY, Kendall 2-4; KOIVISTO, Mikko 2-4; TOOMS, Bart 1-2; BROWN, Pete 0-1; JOHNSON, Dwayne 0-2; SIMMONS, Everson 0-2; OLEKSIAK, Kevin 0-1; STYWALL, Ben 0-2). Fouled out--St. Peter's-None, UNCG-None. Rebounds--St. Peter's 37 (Gore,Michael 6; Sowell,Todd 6), UNCG 40 (HINES, Kyle 14). Assists--St. Peter's 10 (Spann,Kevin 4), UNCG 15 (JOHNSON, Dwayne 5). Total fouls--St. Peter's 20, UNCG 18. Technical fouls--St. Peter's-None, UNCG-None. A-690

SIDELINES: UNCG freshman Kendall Toney made his second start of the season on Thursday night, while Ricky Hickman returned to ”the starting five”. Toney started in place of a struggling Hickman in UNCG's last contest, a double-overtime win 12 days ago at Furman. Toney scored 17 points, 12 in the first 10 minutes, while Hickman scored a game-high 29 points, including 26 of them after halftime and the last nine of the game... Thursday's game was the “return” game from last year's BracketBusters Series match-up. Both teams will play in BracketBusters again this season. UNCG will be a home team, while St. Peter's will be on the road... Hines also had a double-double in last year's meeting in Jersey City.He finished that game with 29 points and 11 rebounds... Bart Tooms' parents, Klaas and Alie, made a holiday visit to Greensboro for the second straight year, making the transatlantic trip to see their son play. Tooms, a 6-11 senior from Amsterdam, usually keep contact with his family via a webcam and instant messenger on his computer in his dorm room. The family is planning to visit for nearly a month this year after staying for a little over a week over the Christmas holidays last year.