Trailing by as many as 16 points, the Belmont Abbey men's basketball team outscored Queens 43-32 in the second half as it sliced the Royals lead down to as few as two points, but the Royals held on to win 70-66 this evening at the Wheeler Center. Queens improves to 8-4 overall and 4-0 in Conference Caroinas, while the Abbey, which had its two game winning streak snapped, falls to 6-7 overall and 2-4 in Conference Carolinas.

Belmont Abbey shot 40.7 (22-54) percent as senior guard Richard Barbee posted his second-straight double double with 22 points an ten rebounds. Tyshawn Good added 13, and Kyle Phillips added 12. Matthew Beerse handed out five assists.

Queens, which shot 46.9 (23-49) percent, used a game-high 31 points from Reggie Hopkins. Hopkins added two rebounds and four assists. Daniel Bailey added 15 points and five rebounds as the Royals won the rebounding edge 33-30.

The Royals built a 15-point halftime lead, 38-23, as Hopkins swished home a jumper at the buzzer to give him 17 points in the opening 20 minutes. Barbee notched 13 of his 22 in the opening half.

Queens maintained its double digit lead through the first 15 minutes of the second half before the Abbey mounted its charge. Two free throws from Matthew Graves at the 5:46 mark started a 12-3 Crusader run that chopped the Royals lead down to a pair at 60-58 with 2:33 left. Graves scored five of his seven points in the run, which included a tradtional three-point play. Another traditional three-point play, this time from Barbee, closed the gap to two points, but that was as close as the Crusaders would get.

The Royals scored the next five consecutive points to push their lead back to seven, but a three-pointer from Tyshawn Good sliced the lead back to four at 65-61 with 38 seconds left. Queens responded by hitting five of its next six free throws to put the game away. Good drilled a three-pointer at the buzzer to provide the winning margin.