Jan. 26, 2004

Greensboro, NC - The Citadel is pushing deeper and deeper into Southern Conference basketball games, but still can't get over the hump for its first league victory.

The Bulldogs led early in the second half and trailed by just four with about six minutes left before UNC Greensboro pulled away for a 75-66 win at Fleming Gymnasium.

The Citadel lost its fifth straight game to fall to 4-13 overall and 0-6 in the SoCon. The Bulldogs will spend the weekend in North Carolina and on Monday night take on Western Carolina and the nation's leading scorer, junior guard Kevin Martin.

Freshman guard Ricky Hickman scored a career-best 21 points to lead UNC Greensboro (6-11, 3-4), and senior Jay Joseph added 17 points.

"This team is getting better," Citadel coach Pat Dennis said of the Bulldogs. "We're still not quite able to put the whole game together, but we're getting better. This team is improving every game out now." Sophomore guard Dante Terry led the Bulldogs with 17 points, and sophomore forward Matt Davis added career-best numbers with 14 points and eight rebounds. Freshman forward J'mel Everhart had 13 points and nine rebounds, and senior Max Mombollet scored 13 points with eight boards as The Citadel outrebounded the Spartans by 40-32, including 21-8 on the offensive end.

"That's an effort stat," Dennis said. "I'm disappointed that we lost, but I'm proud of the effort. These kids played hard and never gave up."

The Bulldogs led by 33-31 at the half and maintained a 39-36 lead after Davis hit one of his four 3-pointers early in the second half. But a 3-point play by Spartans forward Ronnie Burrell and a trey from Hickman sparked an 11-2 Greensboro run, good for a 47-41 lead.

The Spartans led by 10 at 55-45 before Davis, shooting 16.2 percent on 3-pointers coming in, sank back-to-back treys to pull the Dogs within 57-53. But a couple of Citadel turnovers helped UNC Greensboro to a 7-2 run and a 64-55 lead with about two minutes left, and the Bulldogs never got closer than six the rest of the way.

The Citadel made 23 of 67 from the field (34.3 percent) and 10 of 28 (35.7 percent) from 3-point range. Guards Kevin Hammack and Erick Wilson shot a combined 2 of 19 from the field.

Everhart, a 6-6 freshman from Tyler, Texas, guarded Joseph, a 6-4 senior and the Spartans' leading scorer, and did a stellar job. Joseph was 0 for 2 from 3-point range, snapping a streak of 48 straight games with at least one trey dating back to February 2002. Joseph was 4 of 8 from the field and scored most of his points from the foul line late in the game, hitting 9 of 11 free throws.

That will earn Everhart the Monday assignment of guarding Western Carolina's Martin, a 6-7 junior averaging 27.7 points per game. Martin made 9 of 23 shots and scored 27 points in the Catamounts' 109-79 loss at Chattanooga on Saturday.