MARS HILL, N.C. - The Lions defeated visiting Queens University of Charlotte, 87-74 Tuesday night in Stanford Arena to extend their winning streak to eight games. The Lions are now 9-1 while the Royals fell to 2-7 on the season.

Stoney Polite (Morganton, N.C.) hit a 3-pointer with 14:38 left in the first period to give MHC a 15-13 advantage and the Lions never looked back. Mars Hill led by as many as 10 points (23-13) in the first half after Sanders scored off an offensive rebound with 11:44 left in the first stanza. MHC took a 39-32 lead into the locker room at the intermission.

Queens came out in the second half and out scored the Lions 10-4 to trim the deficit to just a single point (43-42) with 15:41 left in the game after Patrick Fox hit a shot from behind the arc. The Lions answered scoring nine unanswered points capped off by a pair of foul shots from Glen to lead 52-42 with 12:52 left in the contest. Queens cut the lead back to seven points with 11:54 on the clock but the Lions again answered going on a 26-10 run over the next eight minutes to take their largest lead of 23 points (80-57) after Blake hit a jumper.

Daniel Bailey  (Irmo, S.C., Hammond )  led the Royals in scoring with 16 points. He also had eight rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one block. Kevin Fowler (Mexico, N.Y. , Mexico Academy) finshed the game with 12 points and nine rebounds. Sean Eads (Greenville, S.C., Eastside) scored 13 points and Joshua Twitty (Rutherfordton, N.C., Polk County) chipped in 10 points.

Danny Sanders (Shelby, N.C.) once again led the Lions scoring a game high 22 points while pulling down eight rebounds and recording four steals. Jamarl Glen (District Heights, Md.) followed with 15 points. Tony Blake (Canton, N.C.) had a solid night scoring 10 points and dishing out four assists.

Queens will play again in a conference match up with Barton College following the women's game on January 5th. Tip off is set for 7:30 pm.