Belmont Abbey senior guard Richard Barbee led all scorers with 25 points, moving into fourth on the school's all-time scoring list, but the visiting Coker Cobras seized control of the game in the second half after a back-and-forth affair in the opening 20 minutes to pull away with a 79-66 win this evening at the Wheeler Center. Coker moves to 7-11 overall and 5-6 in Conference Carolinas, while the Abbey drops to 9-10 overall and 4-7 in Conference Carolinas.

Barbee, who came into tonight's game needing 11 points to move into fourth place on the Abbey's all-time scoring list, registered a double double with a game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds. He sank nine of his 18 field goal attempts and handed out four assists and collected two steals. Kyle Phillips finished with 16 points and six rebounds, and Tyshawn Good added 12 points on four of six shooting with three boards. Belmont Abbey shot 40.7 percent (24-59) from the floor.

Coker had four players reach double figures, led by Delonte Doles's 19 points, all coming in the second half after he did not play in the first half. He sank all six of his field goal attempts and was six of nine from the free throw line. Tom Wright added 17, while Liam Kyle added 11 points and five assists. Vatrick Thompson chipped in with ten. The Cobras shot 51.8 percent (29-56) from the floor.

The first half featured six ties and eight lead changes as neither team's lead rose to any higher than eight points. Coker grabbed a 5-2 lead and held onto it for nearly eight minutes until a Barbee layup tied the score at 14 with 10:43 left. Both teams traded baskets on each of their next two possessions, but two free throws from Kyle gave the Cobras a lead they would hold for the next six minutes.

Trailing by five, the Abbey chopped its deficit from five to a one point lead with a 6-0 run over the next five minutes to regain the lead. A Thompson jumper put Coker back on top by one, but a Good three-pointer moved the Abbey back in front, 27-25, with 2:30 left. Coker closed the half on a 6-2 run, punctuated with a Thompson jumper at the buzzer, to carry a 31-29 lead into the half.

The second half was all Coker, as it outscored the Abbey 48-37 in the stanza. The Cobras opened the half on a 16-4 run over the first eight minutes, building a double digit lead it would never relinquish until two Barbee free throws with 2:25 left closed the lead to nine. Coker shot 57 percent in the second half en route to scoring 48 points.

Barbee now has 1,828 career points, just the fourth player in school history, and the first in 22 years, to score at least 1,800 points.