PEMBROKE – Home-standing UNCP used a 17-7 run over the last six minutes of regulation to tie the score, and then nearly doubled up visiting Mount Olive in overtime en route to a 96-89 victory over the Trojans on Tuesday evening in the English E. Jones Center.

The triumph gave the Braves (6-3) their fifth-straight victory, while also snapping a seven-game series losing streak that has seen five setbacks of 18 points or more. It was the fifth-straight loss for Mount Olive (1-6) who had not dropped a game to the Black & Gold since a 72-67 home setback on Dec. 10, 1996.

Redshirt freshman Quamain Rose registered a team-best 26 points on 8-of-15 shooting to lead a quartet of Braves with double-figure scoring nights. Senior Shahmel Brackett scored all 19 of his points in the final two periods, while K.J. Cooper and Brandon Winford each chipped in 11. George Blakeney turned in five points, seven rebounds and four blocks before exiting the game with an injury early in the second half.

 Five players scored in double figures for the Trojans as well, including Darrell Patterson who tallied a team-best 19 points and Jordan McCain who registered 16 of his own. Dory Hines and Kendall Hargrove each scored 15 points for the visitors, while Mahamed Ibrahim scored a baker's dozen.

"It was a great college basketball game and a great win for us," said UNCP head coach Ben Miller. "Mount Olive is always a really good measuring stick for us. Everybody really went out and competed for us in the second half after a very sluggish first half."

Down 70-60 with 6:07 to play, UNCP went to work with its momentum-changing run, tying the game for the first time with 2:29 remaining on a fast break dunk by Brackett, but falling behind again 19 seconds later on a layup by Hines on the other end. Winford collected a big rebound on a miss by Patterson with 28 seconds left, Rose tied the game again with a tip-in off of a missed 3-pointer and Brackett drew a charge with 4.4 seconds left in regulation to send the game into extra minutes.

After trading a pair of buckets through the first 73 seconds of overtime, Winford's dunk with 3:37 to play sparked the Braves on a five-point scoring spurt that all but put the game out of reach. The Trojans got to within three points, 90-87, on a free throw by Hargrove with 36 ticks left, but Ben Jacobs and Rose combined to can four-straight free throws over the next 10 seconds after a flagrant foul by Patterson.

UNCP led by as much as seven points, 16-9, midway through the first half, but the Trojans outscored the Black & Gold by a 26-6 margin over the game's next nine minutes to grab a 35-22 advantage on Patterson's layup with 1:38 left before the break. The visitors eventually carried a 38-26 lead into the locker rooms.

UNCP will lift the lid on its Peach Belt Conference schedule on Saturday when the Braves travel to Aiken, S.C., to lock horns with USC Aiken (3-2, 0-0 PBC) in the second half of a 5:30 p.m. basketball doubleheader inside USCA's Convocation Center.

 To watch the full game click PART 1 or PART 2.