GREENSBORO, NC – Dontaye Draper scored 28 points, including eight 3-pointers, as College of Charleston pulled away with a big second half to beat UNC Greensboro, 81-59, in Southern Conference men's basketball action Saturday evening at Fleming Gym.

Draper's eight 3-pointers tied a school record and were one shy of an arena record set last year by UNCG's Kevin Oleksiak. He was a perfect 6-for-6 behind the arc in the second half to account for 18 of his 20 points in the second half. As a team, the Cougars shot 66.7 percent from the field (20-for-30) in the second half.

College of Charleston (17-8, 10-3 SoCon) also got 13 points from David Lawrence, 11 points from Tony White Jr. and 10 points from Josh Jackson. Lawrence added nine rebounds and six assists.

It seemed like Draper couldn't do anything wrong in the second half. At one point, he had a 3-pointer hit off the back of the rim, sit like a wounded duck and trickle into the basket.

Ricky Hickman led the Spartans (12-12, 9-5 SoCon) with 19 points. Kyle Hines chipped in 11 points, his 45th consecutive game in double figures. But the Cougars did a relatively good job of neutralizing Hines on the afternoon, as the junior from Sicklerville, NJ was 5-for-11 from the field. It was Hines' lowest point during his current 45-game streak of 10 or more points and just the fourth time during the streak he has been held to 15 or fewer. The streak dates back to Dec. 16, 2005.

Lost in it all was also Hines' 1,500th career point. Hines is the fifth player in school history to record 1,500 career points.

The 22-point loss was UNCG's worst at Fleming Gym since Feb. 17, 2004. The Spartans, after grabbing 15 offensive rebounds and 21 total boards in the first half, had just eight total rebounds in the second half. On the day, the Cougars held a 38-29 advantage on the glass, 21-8 in the second half.

“Draper's a great player and he showed that in the second half today,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “He hit some tough shots and he hit some open shots when we left him unguarded. We didn't play well defensively. They did a good job on Hines and other guys didn't make some open shots. It is a bad formula, but it happens with young basketball players. When you miss open shots, you sometimes let down on the defensive end. That was what we did. We missed shots, then stopped playing defense.”

Both teams struggled to get on track early on. In the game's first nine minutes, UNCG missed 14 of its first 18 from the field, while the Cougars turned the ball over six times. UNCG had just one field goal in a more than six-minute span as College of Charleston opened up a four-point advantage, 15-11. UNCG ran off seven straight, including a dominant sequence on the offensive glass with five shots – the first three by Hines, a fourth by Kendall Toney and then a fifth and final tip-in by Hines – to give the Spartans an 18-15 lead with 7:20 to play in the half.

The Cougars went on a 9-2 run to get the lead back, 24-20, with 4:45 left in the half. However, David Lawrence's tip-in that capped the run would be the Cougars' last field goal of the first hald as the teams settled back into their sluggishness from there. It wasn't until Dwayne Johnson knocked down a 24-footer from the right wing with 1.5 seconds left in the half that UNCG regained the lead, taking a 28-25 lead to the half.

As sloppy as the first half was, the Cougars were rolling in the second half. College of Charleston made eight of its first nine from behind the three-point arc as a squad, with Draper leading the way. The Cougars put up 56 points in the second half – the most UNCG has given up this season by a wide margin. UNCG's worst half this season had been the first half at Duke back on November 16 when it allowed 45.

UNCG suffered a big blow at the 17:31 mark when Hines was called for his third foul on a charge. That was in the midst of a 12-2 run by the Cougars to open the second half to take their largest lead of the afternoon to that point at seven. The Cougars hit their first four three-pointers of the second half, three of them by Draper, as the lead grew to 43-34 with 15:45 to play.

UNCG cut the lead to four a couple of times, but College of Charleston had an answer each time. The lead hit 10, 62-52, on a Draper drive down the lane with a little less than seven minutes to play. That began a 14-4 run that put the game out of reach for UNCG and sent them to their third straight loss.

With the loss, UNCG fell two games behind Appalachian State in the SoCon's North Division. The Mountaineers rallied from a halftime deficit to defeat Wofford, 72-52, Saturday afternoon. UNCG, which beat Appalachian State at home and still plays the Mountaineers in Boone on February 22, no longer controls its own destiny as far as the North Division title is concerned.

UNCG continues its four-game homestand and will try to snap its losing skid on Monday when it hosts backyard-rival Elon at 7:30 pm.

SIDELINES: Senior guard Ricky Hickman was back in the starting lineup on Saturday, his first start since UNCG's loss to Virginia Tech a month earlier (Jan. 10). He responded by scoring UNCG's first seven points.... So just how ugly was the first half? UNCG shot 27.8 percent from the floor, although it led to 15 offensive rebounds by the Spartans. College of Charleston committed 13 turnovers in the first 20 minutes of the contest.

AGATE

COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 81, UNCG 59

COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON (17-8, 10-3)
DRAPER, Dontaye 10-14 0-0 28; LAWRENCE, David 5-10 0-0 13; WHITE JR, Tony 4-7 1-2 11; JACKSON, Josh 4-6 2-2 10; JOHNSON, Jermaine 3-4 3-5 9; MCCANDIES, Philip 2-4 0-0 5; DICKERSON, Renardo 1-2 0-0 3; PARRIS, Javon 1-4 0-0 2; DIARRA, Konimba 0-0 0-0 0; SKRIPKAUSKAS, Tauras 0-0 0-0 0; BALLER, David 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-51 6-9 81.

UNCG (12-12, 9-5)
HICKMAN, Ricky 7-15 2-2 19; HINES, Kyle 5-11 1-2 11; KOIVISTO, Mikko 3-9 0-0 7; OLEKSIAK, Kevin 2-8 0-0 6; JOHNSON, Dwayne 2-6 0-0 5; TOOMS, Bart 2-3 0-0 4; VLAZNY, Greg 1-1 0-0 3; STYWALL, Ben 1-8 0-0 2; AKINOSHO, Matt 0-1 2-2 2; MOORE, Donald 0-1 0-0 0; BROWN, Pete 0-2 0-0 0; HARDIMAN, Mike 0-0 0-0 0; TONEY, Kendall 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 23-68 5-6 59.

Halftime: UNCG 28-25. 3-point goals--College of Charleston 15-26 (DRAPER, Dontaye 8-10; LAWRENCE, David 3-6; WHITE JR, Tony 2-3; MCCANDIES, Philip 1-3; DICKERSON, Renardo 1-2; PARRIS, Javon 0-2), UNCG 8-32 (HICKMAN, Ricky 3-9; OLEKSIAK, Kevin 2-6; JOHNSON, Dwayne 1-3; KOIVISTO, Mikko 1-7; VLAZNY, Greg 1-1; TONEY, Kendall 0-2; STYWALL, Ben 0-3; TOOMS, Bart 0-1). Fouled out--College of Charleston-None, UNCG-None. Rebounds--College of Charleston 38 (LAWRENCE, David 9), UNCG 29 (HINES, Kyle 7). Assists--College of Charleston 16 (LAWRENCE, David 6), UNCG 9 (JOHNSON, Dwayne 5). Total fouls--College of Charleston  12, UNCG 11. Technical fouls--College of Charleston-None, UNCG-None. A-1572

- UNCG -