By Brandon Boyer, Staff Writer

Published in print Feb. 11, 2015

After stumbling in four straight games in the heart of conference play, the Spartans finally put their pieces together to earn two wins away from home last week. With trips to Lexington, Virginia to face the Virginia Military Institute and Charleston, South Carolina to play The Citadel, the Blue and Gold represented quite well against the military schools of the conference.

In a runaway win against the oddball VMI Keydets, who insist on running full court press the entirety of the game, the Spartans were inspired to victory by the performance of Jordy Kuiper.

The sophomore forward from Groningen, Netherlands scored a career-high 12 points and pounced on four rebounds to start the game, connecting on all five shots from the field. An unfortunate hit on a fast break dunk ended his night early with a suspected arm injury.

“I am really happy for our guys being able to enjoy a win, but it is bittersweet tonight with Jordy going down,” said head coach Wes Miller to UNCGspartans.com. “The young man was starting to play as well as anyone on the team the last few games, both defensively and offensively.”

Despite losing their catalyst early on, the rest of the team picked up the slack in his stead.

Senior guard Nicholas Paulos led the way with 20 points with freshman guard Marvin Smith contributing with 14 points and six rebounds from the bench.  Enforcers Kayel Locke and R.J. White connected with nine points and nine rebounds each.

Sophomore guard Diante Baldwin showcased his point guard skillset with eight points, seven rebounds, and seven assists in a dominant performance.

What won the game for the Spartans was the way they completely shut down VMI’s conference-leading scoring attack. The Keydets shot just a dreadful 22 percent from the field, a resounding 16-of-72 for the contest, and only 8-of-38 from beyond the arc, a mere 21 percent of their shots going in.

UNC-Greensboro’s small yet agile attack broke the resolve of the Keydets’ full court press and allowed the visitors to never look back in an 85-56 win at Cameron Hall.

The Citadel Bulldogs played host to the visiting Spartans in the next matchup for UNC-Greensboro at McAlister Field House in Charleston, South Carolina.

Though the game was close throughout, as the Spartans often have issues when playing The Citadel, four players scored in double digits and paved the way to victory for the Blue and Gold.

Guards Diante Baldwin and Tevon Saddler were excellent in the win, scoring 17 points and 15 points respectively. Saddler ran into foul trouble late on, which led to Baldwin stepping up and orchestrating the Spartans’ offense.  R.J. White and Nicholas Paulos both added 14 points apiece.

The Citadel went freezer-at-the-North-Pole cold when shooting in the second half, making a scant four of their attempted field goals in the final 17 minutes of play. UNCG seized control during this cold streak and went on a 38-18 rampage on the offensive end to pull out a 76-63 win away from home.

In the win, junior forward Kayel Locke became the 20th player to score 1,000 points in UNCG basketball history. With 1,001 points in 88 games for the Spartans, Locke has a long time left to add to that total and attempt to catch up to Spartans’ all-time scoring leader, Kyle Hines. Hines played 120 games from 2004-08, scoring 2,187 points for the Blue and Gold.

The Spartans, now with a two game winning streak, the Blue and Gold will attempt to match their longest winning streak of the season (from the week of December 6) when the team returns to the Greensboro Coliseum to battle East Tennessee State on Thursday at 7p.m.