CHARLOTTE, N.C.- Despite two strong comeback attempts the Royals men's basketball team fell short to Mount Olive College at home on Tues. night at Ovens Athletics Center 82-68.

Queens (6-20/5-14 CC) found themselves trailing by 21 with 6:53 to play in the first. Dominque Ester (Creedmoor, N.C. , South Granville ) started a Royals 17-6 run with a three pointer. The Royals defense forced four turnovers and grabbed three defensive boards to keep Queens within 10 to finish the first half, 46-36.

The Royals kept pounding away at the Trojans and were able to pull within seven seven minutes into the second half. Queens tried to keep the Trojans close, but the strong three-point shooting pushed Mount Olive out ahead. Kendrick Easley hit four long buckets and Aaron Dobson contributed one. For the night Mount Olive hit 11-25 three point shots with Dobson and Easley each contributing six.

Daniel Bailey (Irmo, S.C., Hammond ) led Queens with 21 point and Patrick Fox (Eden, N.C. , Morehead)scored 19. Both Bailey and Fox were the team's strongest rebounders for the night, Bailey had six and Fox seven. Reggie Hopkins (Gastonia, N.C., Ashbrook) also scored in double figures for Queens with 12.

Easly scored the game-high 28 with Dobson right behind netting 19. Mount Olive had two other players in the double-digits, Craig Hayes, 12, and Mike Holloman, 10. Justin Melton led the team with seven rebounds.

The win gives Mount Olive a part of the Conference Carolinas regular season title, their second straight. Queens will wait to find out where their final seeding puts them in the conference tourney mix. Currently they are in ninth with one game to play. The eighth seed hosts the ninth seed on Saturday in the first round of the conference tournament.

Queens hosts St. Andrews on Thursday at 7pm.