Nick Kolsin and Jayden Berkin
Women’s Basketball
The UNC Pembroke Women’s Basketball team cruised past the University of Mount Olive Trojans. The Braves shook off a slow start and got things rolling, firing on all cylinders to take the 72-44 win in Conference Carolina action Wednesday night. The Braves with the win improved to 14-6 overall and 9-2 in conference play. The Trojans drop to 5-13 on the season and 3-7 in the conference.
The Trojans took an early 5-4 lead before the Braves started to find rhythm in their offense and got things rolling and put together a series of runs to push their lead to 20-12. The Braves this time started the second quarter off hot with Kalaya Hall leading the charge. With the help of the Braves offense, they managed to outscore Mount Olive 19-9. UNCP headed into the locker room at halftime with a comfortable 39-21 lead.
“Here’s the thing about anybody you go against, you can’t simulate what they do in practice,” UNCP coach John Haskins said. “Let’s switch and deny, that’s something Mount Olive practices every day. So, I think it took us a while to get accustomed to and what we can do to attack that. We did a really good job whether it be in transition, and I think everybody made 3s so it was all that added to that so that was a bonus.”
The Trojans started the second half with a 6-0 run, starting to chip away at the Braves lead and find themselves back in the game, but they continued to pour into their lead and take a 47-29 lead courtesy of an 8-2 scoring run. They took a 55-37 lead heading into the fourth quarter. From the start of the fourth quarter to the end the Braves finished things off outscoring Mount Olive 17-7 to seal things.
Hall led the way for the Braves finishing with 23 points on 8 for 14 shooting while bringing down six rebounds and adding three assists. Malea Garrison provided a spark off the bench finishing with 10 points and Courtney Smith finished the night with nine points, one rebound and three assists.
Men’s Basketball
The UNC Pembroke men’s basketball team struck fast and early en route to a win over the Mount Olive Trojans in a Conference Carolinas game. A fast start helped propel the Braves to a 97-73 win over their rivals.
The Braves started the game out hot with a series of offensive runs that helped them gain the lead and the advantage early in the first half. They would keep pouring into their lead and hold on to a 35-15 lead as the half progressed. The Trojans did manage to close out the first half with a run of their own, but the Braves held the 47-24 lead heading into the locker room.
The Braves managed to hold their lead despite the Trojans attempt to comeback, chipping away at the lead with a 30-22 run to start the second half. The Braves kicked it into high gear in the latter moments of the half, ending the game on a 28-16 run to inevitably win the game.
“[The Bench] is huge, obviously I feel like one of the advantages we have this year compared to last year is our depth, but the depth isn’t good when it doesn’t produce, we’ve had a couple of times this year where our bench didn’t produce and times where they do and when they do we’re a pretty good team..It’s all about production from those bodies”, UNCP men’s head basketball coach Drew Richards said.
Nygell Verdier led the team with 18 points, tonight, followed by Bradlee Haskell and Javonte Waverly, who both had 12 on the night. Cortez Marion-Holmes led the team in rebounds with eight, followed by Verdier’s seven. JaJuan Carr led the team in assists with five , followed by Josh Berenbaums four.
The Braves will make the trip to Georgia this weekend to face a huge Conference Carolinas challenge when they face the Emmanual Lions. Women’s game will tip off at 2 p.m. followed by the men’s game at 4 p.m.