Belmont Abbey senior guard Richard Barbee led all scorers with 31 points, his third 30-plus point game of the season and two shy of his career-high, as the Crusaders men's basketball team earned an 84-71 win over the visiting Mount Olive Trojans this evening at the Wheeler Center. Both teams came into the contest with identical overall and conference marks, as the Crusaders move one game ahead of the Trojans in the standings as they improve to 11-10 overall and 6-7 in Conference Carolinas, while Mount Olive drops to 10-11 overall and 5-8 in Conference Carolinas.

Barbee recorded 15 points in the first half and finished with 31 on nine of 13 shooting from the field, including one for one from three-point range. He sank all 12 of his free throw attempts. He added five rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots and a steal in 35 minutes. Kyle Phillips posted 17 points and five rebounds. Darryl Durham registered a career-best ten points on four of six shooting from the field with two rebounds. Matthew Beerse scored five points and handed out seven assists with no turnovers. The Crusaders shot 57.1 percent (28-49) from the field and converted 25 of their 28 free throw attempts.

Mount Olive, which shot 45.8 percent (27-59) had five players reach double figures, led by Ewon Wright's 17 points. Brandon Allen and Derek Staton both finished with 12,while Aleks Mitrovic and Mahammed Ibrahim scored 11 and ten, respectively. Ibrahim led all players with nine rebounds.

After surrendering the opening basket of the game to Dory Hines, the Abbey relinquished the lead only once more as the Trojans sliced a 10-5 Crusader advantage into 12-10 Mount Olive lead. A layup from Durham knotted the game for the fourth time at 12-12 with 13:13 to play, and after a missed Trojans shot, Jay Council put the Crusaders ahead for good with two free throws at the 12:26 mark.

The advantage stayed within four points over the next three minutes, with Mount Olive closing to within one on an Allen three, but the Abbey embarked on a 19-10 run over the next seven minutes to build its lead to the highest of the half, ten points, at 35-25 with 3:22 left, but Mount Olive closed the half on an 11-2 run to chop the Abbey advantage to just one, 37-36, at the half.

In the second half the Abbey outscored Mount Olive 47-35 as it converted 15 of its 26 shots. The Crusaders scored the first five points of the half and the advantage mushroomed to ten at 61-51 with 8:55 left. That came on an 8-2 run after an Allen three-pointer cut the Abbey lead to four.

Mount Olive scored the next four points to close within six, but a 13-7 Crusader run widened the lead to 12 points at 74-62 with 2:07 left. The Trojans never cut the lead to single digits again, and the Crusaders moved their lead to as high as 14 twice, the last coming on a pair of Beerse free throws with 55 seconds left.