CHARLESTON, SC – All-America candidate Kyle Hines had his 40th career double-double and became UNC Greensboro's all-time leading rebounder as UNCG won for the ninth time in its last 11 games with a 74-63 victory over The Citadel on Saturday afternoon at McAlister Field House. 

The win was career win No. 300 for UNCG coach Mike Dement. In his 21st season as a head coach, Dement is now 300-282 overall. He is the 62nd active head coach to achieve 300 wins.

Hines, a senior from Sicklerville, NJ, extended his nation's longest streak of double-figure scoring games to 68 straight, doing before halftime for the 33rd time in the streak. He finished the day with 20 points and 14 rebounds, following up his 32-point night at College of Charleston on Thursday. Hines became UNCG's all-time leader in rebounds with 936, surpassing Bruce Shaw's nearly 40-year-old record of 933. Shaw played on UNCG's first team from 1968-73. Hines was already the school's leading in field goals, free throws, points and blocked shots in a career.

Sophomore forward Ben Stywall had a game-high 21 points for the Spartans, his fourth straight game in double figures. Davor Galic came off the bench to add 13 points.

The Spartans (12-6, 6-3 SoCon) used a 22-5 run from the end of the first half into the second half to erase 10-point field half deficit and beat the Bulldogs for the eighth straight time.

The Citadel (5-14, 0-10), which lost its eighth straight, got 17 points and seven rebounds from Austin Dahn and 13 points from Cameron Wells. Jon Brick came off the bench to chip in with 11 points.

In UNCG's previous 10 games, the Spartans had allowed 60.4 ppg in their eight wins and 83.5 ppg in their two losses. The Spartans allowed 43 points in the first half on Saturday and then held The Citadel to just 11 points in the first 16 minutes of the second half.

“They are a physical team,” said Dement. “They get right up on you and get a chest on you and get after you and that is exceptional for having such a young club.

“Two of our freshmen got us going at the end of the first half in Davor Galic and Landon Clement. They hit some big shots when we were struggling offensively. We really got after it in the second half defensively. I thought Dwayne Johnson was a big key in that and that seemed to then get our offense going again.”

The opening minutes of the game were much different this time around than in the first meeting when the Spartans ran out to a 17-0 lead to open the game. The Bulldogs hit eight of their first 10 from three-point range to take a 30-22 lead with seven minutes left in the first half. That was a complete turnaround from the first meeting back on January 7 when The Citadel missed their first nine shots from the floor at Fleming Gym and found themselves down by double-figures just four minutes into the game.

Matt Clark's backdoor lay-up with 5:33 left in the opening half gave the Bulldogs their first double digit lead of the day, 32-22. UNCG looked for some form of rhythm, but frustrations began to mount over a tightl- called game. There were a total of 28 fouls called in the first half – the last of which got the Spartans started, however. Freshman Landon Clement, inserted late in the first half because of Spartan foul trouble, got knocked down on a three-point shot, which went in and he converted into a four-point play and cut the deficit to 41-35 with a minute to play. That margin held up at the intermission, 43-37.

But Clement's four-point play sparked a 22-5 run by the Spartans. UNCG scored 11 of the first 14 points of the second half to gain the lead, 48-46, on Ben Stywall's lay-up with 16:21 to play. That lead stretched to seven, 53-46, when Kevin Oleksiak knocked down a trey from the right wing, his first of the day, with 15 minutes remaining. The Bulldogs didn't get closer than five points after that as UNCG stretched its lead to double digits for the final 8:01 of the game.

The Spartans will return home for the first home game in nearly a month when they host Elon next Saturday at 3 pm.

FREE THROWS: UNCG's home game with Elon next Saturday will be the Spartans' first home game with students in session since December 15 when they faced Furman – a span of six weeks... UNCG finishes the regular season with seven of their last 11 games at Fleming Gym. The Spartans are 20-7 over the last four seasons at home against SoCon teams, including wins in 10 of their last 12... Just how thick was the first half foul trouble? At the intermission, The Citadel had six players and UNCG had five players with two fouls and The Citadel had another with three... UNCG's three key perimeter players – Kevin Oleksiak, Kendall Toney and Mikko Koivisto – were a combined 3-for-13 from the floor in the opening half. Toney did not have a three-pointer, ending his streak of 14 straight games with a three-pointer... In his quest for the 2,000 / 1,000 club, Hines now stands 70 points and 64 rebounds shy (1,930 points and 936 rebounds).

AGATE

UNCG 74, THE CITADEL 63

UNCG (12-6, 6-3 SoCon)
Ben Stywall 8-14 4-6 21; Kyle Hines 6-13 8-15 20; Davor Galic 4-6 3-4 13; Kevin Oleksiak 3-11 2-2 9; Landon Clement 1-2 1-1 4; Dwayne Johnson 0-2 3-4 3; Mikko Koivisto 1-6 0-0 3; Pete Brown 0-1 1-2 1; Kendall Toney 0-2 0-0 0; Daniel Oliver 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-57 22-34 74.

THE CITADEL (5-14, 0-10 SoCon)
Austin Dahn 4-9 5-8 17; Cameron Wells 6-12 0-2 13; Jon Brick 4-11 1-2 11; Zach Urbanus 3-4 0-0 8; Daniel Eykyn 2-4 1-2 5; Tyrell Mcdowell 2-5 0-0 4; Dino Dogan 1-1 0-0 2; Matt Clark 1-1 0-0 2; Phillip Pandak 0-2 1-2 1. Totals 23-49 8-16 63.

Halftime: Citadel 43-37. 3-point goals--UNCG 6-21 (Davor Galic 2-4; Landon Clement 1-2; Kevin Oleksiak 1-4; Ben Stywall 1-4; Mikko Koivisto 1-5; Kendall Toney 0-2), The Citadel 9-19 (Austin Dahn 4-5; Zach Urbanus 2-3; Jon Brick 2-4; Cameron Wells 1-3; Phillip Pandak 0-2; Tyrell Mcdowell 0-2). Fouled out--UNCG-None, The Citadel-Tyrell Mcdowell; Matt Clark. Rebounds--UNCG 39 (Kyle Hines 14), The Citadel 32 (Austin Dahn 7). Assists--UNCG 16 (Kevin Oleksiak 8), The Citadel 12 (Cameron Wells 5). Total fouls--UNCG 20, The Citadel 29. Technical fouls--UNCG-Mikko Koivisto, The Citadel-None. A-1066

- UNCG -