Men's Basketball 2/9/2008 7:00:00 PM UNCGSpartans.com

Hines scores 2,000th point, but cold shooting sends UNCG to loss

Box Score

GREENVILLE, SC – UNC Greensboro suffered through a 30.2 percent from the field afternoon and fell to Furman, 69-59, in Southern Conference men's basketball action at Timmons Arena on Sunday afternoon.

The Spartans were a frigid 7-for-34 from 3-point range against Furman's soft 2-3 zone. UNCG did not make a 3-pointer in the second half until Landon Clement's trey with 47.3 seconds left.

Alex Opacic led Furman (5-19, 4-11 SoCon) off the bench with game-highs of 19 points and 13 rebounds in 26 minutes of action. George Brozos added 18 points. The Paladins were 16-for-19 from the free throw line, including 9-of-10 in the second half.

Kyle Hines led the Spartans (13-9, 7-6 SoCon) with 15 points. Hines, a 6-6 senior from Sicklerville, NJ passed the 2,000 point mark for his career with a free throw at the 18:10 mark of the second half. Just moments later, he extended his streak of consecutive games scoring 10 or more points to 72 in a row, the longest active streak in the nation.

Hines also had four steals, three blocked shots and grabbed eight rebounds to leave him 24 boards shy of the 2,000-point, 1,000-rebound combination. He is the 440th player in college basketball history to score 2,000 points. Only 95 players have had 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career, five of which have also had 300 blocked shots. Hines now has 322 blocks in his career.

Senior Kevin Oleksiak added 11 points and sophomore forward Ben Stywall had 12 rebounds to lead UNCG, which lost its third straight. Senior Dwayne Johnson chipped in with seven points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Furman opened up a nine-point lead early, using an 11-0 run to build a 16-7 lead. The Paladins packed it in with that soft 2-3 zone, designed to minimize Hines and UNCG's ability to drive to the basket. With the Spartans missing nine of their first 11 from the field, that worked right from the outset. On the offensive end, Furman's Opacic had his way on the inside early on with nine points in the first 10 minutes.

Opacic picked up his second foul however at the 7:07 mark and the Spartans started to chip away. Landon Clement's three-pointer from the left corner cut the deficit to four, 28-24, with 3:40 to play. Opacic came back in the closing minutes of the half to try to stop the UNCG run, but quickly picked up his third foul with 1:44 left before intermission. Kevin Oleksiak's ensuing free throws closed the gap to two, 30-28. That margin held to the intermission with Furman holding a 32-30 advantage.

The Paladins came out of the locker room with consecutive treys by Justin Dehm to quickly push the lead to eight. The Spartans got a lift, however, from a Hines dunk with 13:25 to play. The ensuing possession saw Oleksiak drive the length of the floor with a rebound to cut it to three, 44-41. The Spartans cut it to one with 10:23 to play on Dwayne Johnson's leaner from the right side, 46-45, but couldn't get over the hump.

The Furman lead got back to six, but a steal and dunk by Hines cut it back to 51-47 with 6:43 left. But UNCG missed on two chances to get it back to within two when Oleksiak missed two free throws and then, after a defensive stop, couldn't convert a drive down the lane. A minute later, the Paladins had it back to eight following an Opacic lay-up.

Furman's defense continued to smother Hines as the Spartan perimeter struggled. Hines, who came in averaging 20.4 ppg in conference action this season and 19.1 ppg overall, did not attempt a field goal after his dunk with 6:43 to play.

The Paladins scored on seven of their final eight possessions over the last four minutes, including 5-for-6 at the free throw line in the final 1:19, to put the game away.

The Spartans return home to face Davidson on Wednesday night. The game will be televised regionally by Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) and will tip-off at 7 pm.

FREE THROWS: Lost in Monday night's setback to Wofford was the fact that Kyle Hines became the first player in school history to record 400 points in four seasons... Playing a historical hunch, the Spartans inserted Kendall Toney into the starting line-up on Sunday. Toney had five treys in UNCG's win at Furman last season, going 5-for-7 from behind the arc on his way to 17 points... Ben Stywall moved into the top 25 on UNCG's career rebounding list on Sunday... It was just the second time this season that UNCG had attempted more 3-pointers (34) than two-pointers (29). The 34 3-point attempts were a season-high... Wednesday's MASN broadcast is available nationally for Dish Network and DirecTV subscribers.

AGATE

FURMAN 69, UNCG 59

UNCG (13-9, 7-6 SoCon)
Kyle Hines 5-10 5-8 15; Kevin Oleksiak 3-16 4-7 11; Kendall Toney 3-11 0-0 8; Dwayne Johnson 2-5 2-2 7; Landon Clement 2-8 0-0 6; Mikko Koivisto 1-6 2-2 5; Ben Stywall 2-6 1-3 5; Davor Galic 1-1 0-0 2; Pete Brown 0-0 0-0 0; Daniel Oliver 0-0 0-0 0; Darrius Sellers 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-63 14-22 59.

FURMAN (5-19, 4-11 SoCon)
Alex Opacic 6-10 6-6 19; George Brozos 5-13 7-7 18; Justin Dehm 3-9 2-2 10; Connor Nolte 4-10 0-0 9; Noah States 2-5 0-0 4; Tony Anderson 2-5 0-0 4; Darryl Evans 1-4 1-2 3; Jordan Miller 1-3 0-2 2. Totals 24-59 16-19 69.

Halftime: Furman 32-30. 3-point goals--UNCG 7-34 (Landon Clement 2-7; Kendall Toney 2-9; Kevin Oleksiak 1-9; Dwayne Johnson 1-2; Mikko Koivisto 1-6; Ben Stywall 0-1), Furman 5-20 (Justin Dehm 2-6; Connor Nolte 1-6; Alex Opacic 1-1; George Brozos 1-3; Darryl Evans 0-1; Tony Anderson 0-1; Noah States 0-2). Fouled out--UNCG-Davor Galic, Furman-Noah States. Rebounds--UNCG 41 (Ben Stywall 12), Furman 45 (Alex Opacic 13). Assists--UNCG 13 (Dwayne Johnson 5), Furman 13 (Darryl Evans 5). Total fouls--UNCG 16, Furman 17. Technical fouls--UNCG-None, Furman-None. A-908