Queens puts on high-scoring show against Mars Hill

It seemed hard to believe, but the Queens Royals’ offensive outburst in a 122-93 South Atlantic Conference men’s basketball victory over Mars Hill on Saturday wasn’t a school record.

The No. 7 Royals (22-2, 16-2) just missed the mark set by the 2000-2001 team in a 126-113 win over then-Conference Carolinas rival Barton.

But the end result was a nice show for a loud homecoming crowd at Curry Arena and Queens’ eighth straight victory.

“It was a lot of fun. A crowd always brings good energy,” said senior guard Rob Lewis, who led five Royals in double figures with 24 points. “You always want to feed off that.”

And that they did, coming back from an 11-point deficit early in the first half in a game that was fast-paced from start to finish.

Sean Morgan and Marquis Rankin scored 20 points each, Daniel Camps added 14 and Jared Hendryx 10 for Queens, which didn’t do anything to hurt its ranking as the No 1-ranked Division II team in field goal percentage.

The Royals, who held a 59-38 lead at halftime, hit 45-of-76 shots from the field (59.2 percent).

“As well as we played offensively, I thought we really got rolling when we started guarding people,” Queens coach Bart Lundy said. “But we shoot well because everybody’s very unselfish. They move the ball and share it and everybody knows what they're good at.”

Guard Justin Yeargin scored 26 points for Mars Hill (9-15, 5-13) to lead all scorers.

Three who mattered

Rob Lewis, Queens: At halftime, he was the only Royals’ starter who hadn’t hit a shot from the field. He made up for it with a 6-for-8 second half. He hit 5-of-7 three-point attempts in the second half.

Marquis Rankin, Queens: The former Vance standout had seven assists and five rebounds to go with his 20 points.

Sean Morgan, Queens: The senior forward made the most of just 15 minutes of action, hitting 8 of 10 shots.

Observations

The Royals shot well from literally everywhere they tried it in this game, making 30-of-43 two-point field goal attempts, 15-of-33 from three-point range and 17-of-20 from the free-throw line.

They said it

“I think it’s our prep and our hard work. We always have guys shooting late in the gym and we work a lot in practice on certain kinds of shots. It pays off.” — Lewis on the Royals’ sharp shooting this season.

Worth mentioning

Lundy moved into a tie with Dale Layer as the winningest men’s basketball coach in Queens history with 168 victories. Lundy, in the third season of his second tenure at the school, also coached here from 1998 to 2003. Layer, whose name is on the Royals’ home court, coached Queens from the beginning of the program in 1988 to 1998.

Queens’ next game is at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Catawba. The next home game is a big South Atlantic Conference matchup with league leader Lincoln Memorial at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Queens puts on high-scoring show against Mars Hill."