ELON -- UNCG placed all five starters in double figures in its road game at Elon on Saturday night and emerged with an 89-72 win. It was the Spartans' fifth consecutive victory over the Phoenix.
"Two of the last three games we've started to knock down some shots and make some plays offensively," Spartans coach Mike Dement said. "Damien Eargle and DeAngelo Jackson got off to a great start knocking down shots and that gave us great confidence."
Mikko Koivisto led the Spartans with 22 points, Eargle had 18 and Ben Stywall had 15 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for his third straight double-double and fifth one of the season.
Josh Bonney hit two free throws for the Phoenix after a technical foul was called on UNCG's Daniel Oliver. That tied the game at 54-54 with 12:16 left. But the Spartans (3-12, 2-4 Southern Conference) used balanced scoring to go on a 28-6 run over the next 8:24 to win for the second time in their last three games.
Eargle hit back-to-back shots to give UNCG the lead for good. Seven different players scored in the big run, with Montel Smith, Kendall Toney and Koivisto hitting three straight 3-point baskets to sew up the game.
UNCG shot a season-high 58.9 percent from the floor, including 7-of-14 from 3-point range. It also out-rebounded Elon by 12 and committed just 11 turnovers in its best outing of the season.
"To get five guys in double figures on the road is very valuable," Dement said. "To shoot the percentages we did, very valuable."
The Spartans entered the game averaging 17 turnovers per contest but took care of the ball against the Phoenix. They had five turnovers in the opening 20 minutes, as Dement chose to go with Oliver at the point for 17 minutes. He helped UNCG to a five-point lead 39-34 at halftime.
"He played OK," Dement said, "but I thought Montel Smith played very solid when he was in there and hit a big shot, too. He took care of the ball. Those two guys didn't have turnovers. At App State we only had 10 turnovers and tonight we only had 11 turnovers and that's obviously a big deal for us."
Elon (4-10, 1-5) fell behind 9-2 early but battled back behind strong inside play from Ola Atoyebi. The senior forward scored 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting. But UNCG held him in check in the second half, as it held the Phoneix' leading scorer without a bucket over the last 12:48 of the game.
"The key to our team is that we've got to be able to score another way," Elon coach Ernie Nestor said. "People aren't going to let you throw it to (Atoyebi) all night. He comes off a 27-point game against Davidson, (and) you know that people are going to take him away. If you don't punish them by scoring someplace else then basically they're going to be successful."
While Nestor was disappointed with his team's inability to score in the second half, he was more upset about Elon's defensive effort.
"Basically we just hit the wall," Nestor said. "We went through a period where we didn't score and they did. We missed shots and then we lost energy defensively. And that's when you've got to have energy defensively."
UNCG (3-12, 2-4)
FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Stywall 37 5-7 5-9 4-12 1 3 15
Eargle 28 9-15 0-2 1-9 0 3 18
Jackson 22 5-5 0-0 2-3 0 4 10
Koivisto 37 7-12 4-4 0-2 4 2 22
Oliver 29 2-7 7-10 1-2 5 2 12
Hardiman 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Smith 11 1-2 0-0 0-2 3 1 3
Toney 17 2-4 0-0 1-2 5 0 5
Spooner 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Brown 19 2-4 0-0 1-2 0 0 4
Totals 200 33-56 16-25 10-37 18 15 89
Percentages: FG .589, FT .640.
3-Point goals: 7-14, .500 (Koivisto 4-7, Smith 1-1, Oliver 1-3, Toney 1-3).
Team rebounds: 3.
Blocked shots: 0.
Turnovers: 11 (Oliver 3, Stywall 3, Jackson 2, Eargle, Koivisto, Brown).
Steals: 6 (Oliver 3, Jackson, Stywall, Brown).
Technical fouls: Oliver.
ELON (4-10, 1-5)
FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Sanders 18 1-3 0-0 2-3 0 2 2
Atoyebi 29 8-12 1-1 3-6 1 3 17
Carter 19 0-5 0-2 0-1 3 1 0
James 30 5-11 0-0 0-4 1 3 11
Long 28 5-12 0-0 1-2 6 3 12
Bonney 29 3-8 4-4 0-0 7 2 10
Spradlin 11 3-5 0-3 0-0 0 3 9
Birdette 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Ogolo 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Watts 6 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Constantine 9 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 1 0
Douglas 17 4-6 0-0 0-3 0 2 11
Totals 200 29-63 5-10 9-25 18 20 72
Percentages: FG .460, FT .500.
3-point goals: 9-24, .375 (Spradlin 3-4, Douglas 3-5, Long 2-7, James 1-5, Carter 0-1, Sanders 0-1, Ogolo 0-1).
Team rebounds: 4.
Blocked shots: 2 (Atoyebi 2).
Turnovers: 12 (Carter 4, James 2, Sanders 2, Watts, Long, Bonney, Constantine).
Steals: 6 (Long 2, James 2, Bonney, Douglas).
Technical fouls: None.
UNCG 39 50 -- 89
Elon 34 38 -- 72
Officials--John Corio, William Covington Sr., Xavier McCall. A--1,450.
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