SPARTANBURG, SC Kyle Hines scored a game-high 30 points, but for the second straight year UNCG suffered a heartbreaking overtime loss at the hands of Wofford's Drew Gibson as the Terriers upended the Spartans, 80-75.

Gibson scored six of Wofford's 13 points in the overtime, including a big three-pointer with 1:27 left in the extra session to give the Terriers a lead they would not surrender. Gibson, who scored eight points in the second overtime period to beat UNCG last season at Johnson Arena, finished the night with 13 points and 10 assists.

Hines, who broke Jay Joseph's UNCG career mark for field goals early in the first half, topped the 20-point mark for the 31st time in 83 career games. The junior extended his streak to 44 straight games scoring 10 or more points, the 23rd time in the streak he has scored 20 or more. In pursuit of Joseph's career scoring record, Hines now has 610 field goals in his career.

He also became the first player in school history to record four 30-point games in a single-season.

“Ben Stywall hit a big three-pointer at the end of regulation to give us a chance, but we have to get back to play defense,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “We gave up lay-ups, we gave up three-pointers, including that one to Gibson late that broke our backs. We got boxed out and didn't get to the loose balls. We have to those things.”

Stywall, a freshman from Charlotte, NC, recorded a double-double, his second this season, with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Mikko Koivisto chipped in with 13 points, his second straight game in double figures.It was the second straight game that UNCG shot better than 50 percent from the floor and lost. UNCG shot 52.5 percent on Monday against Wofford after shooting 52.1 percent from the field in its loss at Davidson on Saturday.

UNCG (12-11, 9-4) scored the first five points of overtime, a power move by Hines and a trey by Koivisto, to take a 72-67 lead. A conventional three-point play on a putback by Wofford's Tyler Whatley cut the lead to 72-70 with 2:38 left in the extra session. Ben Stywall missed the front end of a one-and-one for UNCG before Drew Gibson was fouled on the other end for Wofford. Gibson, who missed a pair at the line earlier in the overtime, knocked down both this time to tie the game with 2:06 to play, 72-72.

Shane Nichols fouled Ricky Hickman on UNCG's next possession. Hickman one of two to give UNCG a one-point lead. Gibson, reminiscent of how he carried Wofford to a double-overtime win over UNCG in Spartanburg last year, knocked down a three-pointer on the other end to give Wofford a 75-73 lead.

UNCG turned it over on its next possession and then fouled Shane Nichols with 47.1 seconds left. Nichols missed his first to leave the door open, but made his second.

Koivisto missed a three-pointer from the top of the key and UNCG had to foul again. This time, Whatley stepped to the line and knocked down a pair to make it a five-point game.

Stywall cut it to three on a putback with 23.5 left. Kendall Toney fouled Drew Gibson with 20.5 to play and Gibson made one-of-two to make it a four-point game. UNCG missed a pair of three-pointers on its next possession and saw its hopes of a win slip away.

Wofford (8-15, 3-9 SoCon) was led by Shane Nichols' 20 points, one of five Terriers in double-figures. Whatley had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

UNCG jumped out to an early 10-5 lead by hitting five of its first six shots, but found itself in trouble shortly after that. Wofford went on a 15-2 run to take a 20-12 lead with 12 minutes left in the first half. Nichols had two three-pointers to spark the run.

UNCG would not surrender another field goal for five minutes to get back into it. The Spartans scored seven straight to get back to within one and the teams started to go back-and-forth from there. Neither team led by more than three for the remainder of the half as the Terriers had no answer for UNCG's Hines but Wofford kept responding with three-point bombs.

Hines had 17 points in the first half on 8-of-10 shooting to spark UNCG's 67 percent first-half field goal shooting. Wofford, in the meantime, was 8-of-17 from three-point range in the first half, including 5-for-6 by Nichols, to stay within a point at the break, 41-40.

Both teams made halftime adjustments and the tempo slowed in the second half. UNCG missed seven of its first 11 from the floor in the seond half and Wofford six of its first nine over the half's first eight minutes.

As UNCG was held to just one field goal over a six-minute span, Corey Godzinsky's three-pointer from the right corner gave Wofford its first lead since late in the first half. While it was just the second three-pointer of the second half for the Terriers, it gave them a 56-55 advantage.

Wofford's Gibson drove the land and converted a conventional three-point play with three minutes to go to give Wofford a 65-60 lead, its largest since midway through the first first half.

The Spartans failed to score on their next two possessions, but turned to the half-court trap with 1:45 left and it paid dividends. Koivisto stole the ball and drove to the basket to cut it to 65-62.

After a UNCG timeout, the Terriers got the ball into the frontcourt, but then threw it away against the pressure with 1:25 left. Stywall promptly knocked down a three-pointer from the right wing with 1:10 to play to tie the game.

Wofford slowed things down and got a lay-up by Whatley with 32 second to play, but UNCG went back to Stywall and he scored on a fadeaway with 20.9 to play.

Dwayne Johnson then drew a charge with 3.9 seconds left as Shane Nichols tried to drive to the basket to give UNCG the ball back for what looked to be the last possession of regulation. UNCG threw it away to give Wofford the ball under its own basket. But Gibson forced a three-pointer from the right wing that missed badly and the game headed to overtime.

It was the 10th game this season UNCG has played that was decided by five points or less and the fourth that went overtime.

UNCG will look to bounce back on Saturday when it opens a four-game homestand by facing College of Charleston. Tip off for the game, the second half of a doubleheader, is slated for approximately 4:30 pm.

AGATE

WOFFORD 80, UNCG 75

UNCG (12-11, 9-4 SoCon)

HINES, Kyle 14-19 2-5 30; STYWALL, Ben 8-11 1-3 18; KOIVISTO, Mikko 5-11 0-0 13; HICKMAN, Ricky 1-6 3-4 5; JOHNSON, Dwayne 1-2 2-2 4; TONEY, Kendall 1-4 0-0 3; OLEKSIAK, Kevin 1-4 0-0 2; BROWN, Pete 0-1 0-0 0; AKINOSHO, Matt 0-0

0-0 0; TOOMS, Bart 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-59 8-14 75.

WOFFORD (8-15, 3-9 SoCon)

NICHOLS, Shane 6-12 3-4 20; O'CONNOR, Matt 5-10 2-3 14; WHATLEY, Tyler 4-7 5-5 13; GIBSON, Drew 4-13 4-7 13; GODZINSKI, Corey 4-8 2-2 12; SALTERS, Junior 2-8 1-2 5; ESTEP, Matt 1-2 0-0 3; LEBOLO, Emilio 0-0 0-0 0; NIXON,

Norm 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-61 17-23 80.

Halftime: UNCG 41-40. 3-point goals--UNCG 5-19 (KOIVISTO, Mikko 3-9; TONEY, Kendall 1-4; STYWALL, Ben 1-2; OLEKSIAK, Kevin 0-1; JOHNSON, Dwayne 0-1; HICKMAN, Ricky 0-2), Wofford 11-28 (NICHOLS, Shane 5-9; O'CONNOR, Matt 2-5; GODZINSKI, Corey 2-4; GIBSON, Drew 1-4; ESTEP, Matt 1-2; SALTERS, Junior 0-4). Fouled out--UNCG-HICKMAN, Ricky, Wofford-O'CONNOR, Matt. Rebounds--UNCG 34 (STYWALL, Ben 12), Wofford 40 (WHATLEY, Tyler 11). Assists--UNCG 16 (HICKMAN, Ricky 5), Wofford 19 (GIBSON, Drew 10). Total fouls--UNCG 20, Wofford 13. Technical fouls--UNCG-None, Wofford-None. A-1837

SIDELINES: UNCG now returns home to play its final four home games this season. The Spartans, who open the stretch with a big game against College of Charleston on Saturday afternoon at approximately 4:30 pm, are 7-2 at Fleming this season and are 69-21 on their home floor going back to November 1999... Kyle Wheliston and the folks at Midmajority.com track an interesting stat. The NBA has created an offensive efficiency formula that Whelliston and his crew have applied to college players nationally. Kyle Hines entered action Monday ranked as the sixth highest rated player in the country. If you can follow (and it is about as complicated as the NFL's passing efficiency), the formula is: ((Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks) - ((Field Goals Att. - Field Goals Made) + (Free Throws Att. - Free Throws Made) + Turnovers)). Applying that, Hines has a rating of 23.9. Texas freshman phenom Kevin Durant is the highest-rated player at 28.5 VMI's Reggie Williams, chief of the Keydets run-and-gun offense, is second, followed by Nick Fazekas (Nevada), Jared Dudley (Boston College) and Morris Almond (Rice). LSU's “Big Baby” Glen Davis is ranked 11th, while North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough is 32nd... With Mikko Koivisto earning the start in place of Kendall Toney, the Spartans used their ninth different starting line-up of the season.

- UNCG -