CHARLESTON, SC Kyle Hines had a season-high 32 points, the sixth 30-point game of his career, as UNC Greensboro won at College of Charleston for the first time ever, 88-71, Thursday night in Southern Conference men's basketball action at Kresse Arena.

Hines, in extending his double-figure scoring streak to 67 straight games, was 14-for-16 from the field to lead the Spartans' best ever shooting night as a Division I program. UNCG shot 66.7 percent in both halves to finish the game with their best shooting night since March 2, 1989 when the Spartans faced Armstrong State as a Division III program. On Thursday, the Spartans were a blistering 27-for-34 inside the three-point arc.

With the 32-point performance, Hines topped the 1,900-point mark for his career. The Sicklerville, NJ native now has 1,910 points to go along with 922 rebounds.

Kevin Olesksiak, a senior from Abington, PA, had 16 points, 13 in the first half, to go along with a career-high nine assists and four rebounds for the Spartans (11-6, 5-3 SoCon).

Ben Stywall added 15 points, including 11 in the second half, and Mikko Koivisto chipped in with 13 points for UNCG, which won for the first time in 10 tries at College of Charleston.

Andrew Goudelock led three Cougars in double figures with 17 points, including five three-pointers. Tony White, Jr. added 14 points, including four three-pointers for College of Charleston (9-10, 4-5).

“That is the best we have played in my three years,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement, who picked up career win No. 299. “We had a great performance from all of our guys across the board. I didn't think after shooting 67 percent in the first half that we could keep that going, but we did. It is the first time we have won down here and it took that kind of performance to get it done against a talented squad.”

As the Spartans shot 66.7 percent from the floor (18-for-27) in the opening half, it was UNCG's best first-half shooting performance since November 30, 2004. That resulted in a 45-35 halftime lead. Oleksiak scored 10 of his points in first 11:05 as the Spartans came out running with the up-tempo Cougars. The Spartans opened up an eight-point lead, 36-28, when a Hines lay-up with 3:25 to play in the opening half capped off a 12-5 spurt. A trey by Oleksiak, his third of the first half, with a minute to play, gave the Spartans their first double-digit lead of the night, 43-32.

The lead grew from there to open the second half. In the first seven minutes of the half, Hines scored six of the Spartans 16 points to extend the lead to 61-45. The Cougars tried to adjust in that span, using two timeouts and switching from a man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone.

College of Charleston slowly pecked away after the adjustment. The Cougars got the deficit down to nine with 7:50 to play on Goudelock's trey, 69-60. But the Spartans scored eight straight on an Oleksiak trey, a conventional three-point play when Hines dunked over Jermaine Johnson and another Hines drive resulting in a dunk. The Cougars never threatened after that.

UNCG concludes its five-game road trip on Saturday afternoon at The Citadel. Game time is set for 2:05 pm.

AGATE

UNCG 88, COLL OF CHARLESTON 71

UNCG (11-6, 5-3 SOCON)

Kyle Hines 14-16 4-4 32; Kevin Oleksiak 6-12 0-0 16; Ben Stywall 7-10 0-0 15; Mikko Koivisto 5-10 0-0 13; Dwayne Johnson 1-2 3-5 5; Pete Brown 2-3 0-0 4; Kendall Toney 1-1 0-0 3; Davor Galic 0-0 0-0 0; Daniel Oliver 0-0 0-0 0; Landon Clement 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 36-54 7-9 88.

COLL OF CHARLESTON (9-10, 4-5 SOCON)

Andrew Goudelock 6-10 0-0 17; Tony White Jr 5-7 0-0 14; Donavan Monroe 3-5 3-4 10; Dustin Scott 3-6 2-3 8; Antwaine Wiggins 3-7 1-2 8; Jeremy Simmons 2-5 2-2 6; Jermaine Johnson 3-8 0-0 6; Marcus Hammond 1-6 0-0 2; Konimba Diarra 0-0 0-0 0; David Baller 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-54 8-11 71.

Halftime: UNCG 45-35. 3-point goals--UNCG 9-20 (Kevin Oleksiak 4-7; Mikko Koivisto 3-8; Kendall Toney 1-1; Ben Stywall 1-3; Dwayne Johnson 0-1), Coll of Charleston 11-20 (Andrew Goudelock 5-9; Tony White Jr 4-5; Donavan Monroe 1-1; Antwaine Wiggins 1-3; Marcus Hammond 0-2). Fouled out--UNCG-None, Coll of Charleston-None. Rebounds--UNCG 22 (Kyle Hines 9), Coll of Charleston 26 (Antwaine Wiggins 7). Assists--UNCG 23 (Kevin Oleksiak 9), Coll of Charleston 14 (Jermaine Johnson 4). Total fouls--UNCG 11, Coll of Charleston 8. Technical fouls--UNCG-None, Coll of Charleston-None. A-3314

FREE THROWS: College of Charleston was the first opponent UNCG ever faced in the sport of men's basketball. On November 27, 1967, the Spartans and Cougars faced off at the St. Andrew's Tournament in Laurinburg, NC. The Cougars won that game, 80-79... For the first time since becoming conference rivals, the Spartans and Cougars will play twice during the regular season. The last time the two teams played twice in the same year was in 1992-93 when the Spartans were an independent program, awaiting full status in the Big South... Pete Brown got his first career start in an interesting way on Thursday night. Ben Stywall had a uniform malfunction just before game time and wasn't able to take the floor when the game was ready to start. So Brown took his place... College of Charleston's first four of the game came with 10.8 seconds left in the first half

- UNCG -