GREENSBORO, NC UNC Greensboro ran out to a 17-0 lead in the game's first five minutes on their way to a 84-54 win over The Citadel in Southern Conference men's basketball action on Monday night.

All-America candidate Kyle Hines extended his nation's longest double figure scoring streak to 63 straight games in the first 10 minutes of the contest marking the 29th time in the string that he had done it before halftime. The 6-6 senior from Sicklerville, NC finished the night with 22 points on a perfect 10-for-10 from the floor, a UNCG single-game record. Hines did not return to the floor after leaving with 16:26 to play and played just 19 minutes. In fact, no UNCG starter played after the 16:06 mark of the second half.

Hines became the seventh player in SoCon history to go 10-for-10 or better from the floor in a game and just the third time in a conference game. The SoCon record for field goal percentage in a game is 12-for-12 by Chattanooga's Ashley Champion in 2002 and Tyson Patterson of Appalachian State in 2000.

The win was UNCG's sixth straight, its longest winning streak since January 2001. The Spartans raised their mark to 9-4 overall and 3-1 in conference play. UNCG led by as many as 40 in the second half before clearing the bench. The 30-point margin was UNCG's most lopsided conference win since joining a Division I conference in 1993-94 as a member of the Big South and was the Spartans largest win over a Division I opponent.

Kevin Oleksiak chipped in with 11 points and six assists to tie a season-high. Dwayne Johnson, playing in his 100th career game, also dished out five assists, the 22nd time in his career he has had five or more assists in a game. Pete Brown grabbed a career-high eight rebounds off the bench for the Spartans.

The Citadel (5-9, 0-5) got 19 points from Austin Dahn, including 5-for-7 from three-point range. Tyrell McDowell chipped in with 12 points and seven rebounds.

The win was career No. 297 for Mike Dement and his 92nd in his two tenures at UNCG, tying him with Bob McEvoy for the most wins by a Spartan coach.

“I was happy with a lot of things tonight,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “You get a lead like that early and I think you look at how you can start working some other guys into the game. As a coach, you always find ways to improve. You look down at the box score and you see they hit 10 three-pointers. Those are the things that we need to improve on.”

The Citadel started five true freshmen on Monday night, and the Spartans took advantage right from the start. UNCG jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first 3:11 of the contest six of them coming on a pair of Mikko Koivisto treys to force the Bulldogs into an early timeout. The run continued from there.

The Bulldogs stabilized things briefly, playing UNCG even to a 28-13 score. The Bulldogs recovered from a 0-for-9 start from the field, but the Spartans ran off seven straight for their first 20-point advantage of the night. Shortly thereafter, Hines scored on an alley-oop to make him 8-for-8 on the night and UNCG had a 39-15 lead with still four minutes left in the half.

The led grew to 47-18 at the break, UNCG's largest lead of the season to that point, outscoring the Bulldogs 26-4 in the paint and shooting 54.3 percent from the floor.

With the Spartan starters already on the bench, UNCG's lead grew to 40 midway through the second half before a 14-4 Citadel run closed the gap to 74-44 with 3:57 to play.

UNCG begins a five-game road trip on Thursday when it faces Chattanooga for a 7 pm tip.

AGATE

UNCG 84, THE CITADEL 54

THE CITADEL (5-9, 0-5)

Austin Dahn 6-8 2-2 19; Tyrell Mcdowell 4-9 2-2 12; Cameron Wells 2-14 4-6 8; Zach Urbanus 3-8 0-1 8; Jon Brick 1-5 0-0 3; Neven Zeravica 1-1 0-0 2; Matt Clark 1-3 0-0 2; Dino Dogan 0-0 0-0 0; Monte Simmons 0-0 0-0 0; Phillip Pandak 0-2 0-0 0; Daniel Eykyn 0-2 0-0 0; John Reynolds 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-53 8-11 54.

UNCG (9-4, 3-1)

Kyle Hines 10-10 2-3 22; Kevin Oleksiak 5-10 0-0 11; Landon Clement 3-8 2-2 9; Daniel Oliver 4-5 0-0 9; Davor Galic 3-4 0-0 8; Kendall Toney 3-7 0-1 7; Mikko Koivisto 2-2 0-0 6; Pete Brown 2-5 0-0 4; Ben Stywall 1-3 2-2 4; Mike Hardiman 1-4 0-0 2; Michael Mitchell 0-0 1-2 1; Dwayne Johnson 0-0 1-2 1; Darrius Sellers 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 34-62 8-12 84.

Halftime: UNCG 47-18. 3-point goals--The Citadel 10-24 (Austin Dahn 5-7; Zach Urbanus 2-4; Tyrell Mcdowell 2-4; Jon Brick 1-2; Phillip Pandak 0-1; Daniel Eykyn 0-2; Matt Clark 0-1; Cameron Wells 0-3), UNCG 8-23 (Mikko Koivisto 2-2; Davor Galic 2-3; Kevin Oleksiak 1-5; Landon Clement 1-5; Daniel Oliver 1-1; Kendall Toney 1-3; Darrius Sellers 0-2; Mike Hardiman 0-2). Fouled out-The Citadel-None, UNCG-None. Rebounds--The Citadel 28 (Tyrell Mcdowell 7), UNCG 39 (Pete Brown 8). Assists--The Citadel 10 (Cameron Wells 6), UNCG 17 (Kevin Oleksiak 6). Total fouls--The Citadel 12, UNCG 11. Technical fouls--The Citadel-None, UNCG-None. A-795

FREE THROWS: The Spartans won't play another home game until February 2 when they host Elon... A team that features a total of 13 true freshmen, the Bulldogs' lone senior is still out of the line-up due to injury. Demetrius Nelson missed his seventh straight game due to injury on Monday night... Mike Hardiman picked up his first career points in 10 minutes of action. Hardiman, who walked-on to the team in mid-season last year after originally being part of the student group known as “The Ocho,” hit a jumper in the lane with 1:30 to play... In the six-game winning streak, UNCG has held opponents to 38 percent shooting from the floor. The Citadel finished at 34 percent on Monday night... Hines went over 1800 points for his career. His limited playing time, however, contributed to him only grabbing four rebounds on the night... Twelve of the 13 Spartans who saw action his the scoring column. Along with Hardiman, Michael Mitchell also scored his first career point.

- UNCG -

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