CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Queens University of Charlotte men's basketball team scored a season-high 95 points in their 10th consecutive win Thursday night, topping St. Andrews Presbyterian 95-83 in Ovens Athletic Center. The win streak is the program's longest since the 2002-03 team won 12 straight.

“We've shown that we can win games a bunch of different ways,” said Royals assistant coach Scott Taylor. “We'd rather not give up 83 points on our home court, but we played well enough offensively to get another win.”

The win gives the Royals a 7-0 (11-4) record and sole possession of first place in the Conference Carolinas, while the Knights drop to 4-4 (7-8) and slide into a tie for fifth place with Barton.

Reggie Hopkins (Gastonia, N.C., Ashbrook) and Brent Evans (Beaufort, S.C., Battery Creek) got the Royals going early, combining for 26 first-half points on 10-11 shooting.

“Brent Evans dominated the paint for us all night,” said Taylor. “He rebounded hard and finished plays at the rim when he had the chance. It was important for us to establish a presence inside to free up our scorers on the perimeter and Brent did that for us tonight.”

Leading 19-12, an Evans steal was pushed up in transition, setting up an Antonio Stabler (Garner, N.C., Wakefield)-to-Daniel Bailey (Irmo, S.C., Hammond ) alley-oop to give the Royals their largest lead of the half.

Shooting 48.5 percent in the first half, the Knights would cut the lead to as few as one before a 7-0 Royals run in the final 1:49, capped off by a break-away dunk by Bailey, gave the Royals a nine-point advantage going into halftime.

“Give a lot of credit to St. Andrews,” Taylor said, “they are a talented group of guys and really came in here and attacked us offensively. We didn't do a very good job of guarding the dribble in the first half and that put a lot of pressure on our other guys to help.”

The Royals added to the seven-point run they ended the first half with – scoring the first five points out of the break to take a commanding 14-point lead.

Shooting 40.6 percent in the second half, the Knights would make another run at the Royals' lead. A pair of lay-ups from Antonio Moffitt cut the lead to six with over 13 minutes remaining, but the Royals would put the pedal back down and maintain a comfortable cushion the remainder of the game.

Evans finished the game with 21 points (eight-for-10) and 12 boards for his first double-double of the season. Hopkins scored 15 second-half points to total a game-high 28 on the night – the third time in the last four games he has surpassed 27-plus points.

“Reggie Hopkins was awesome in the second half,” said Taylor. “His poise and patience really gave us a steady influence on the court. His leadership has been great for this group of guys.”

Forced to work out of several traps in the second half, Taylor credited his guards' ability to move the ball consistently.

“Preston [Newlin] (Graham, N.C., Graham), Reggie, and Dan all did a good job handling the ball for us against their pressure. Each guy had 3 assists and took the time to draw the double team and find the open man, giving us a chance to advance the ball and put us in positions to score.”

Leading Limestone (6-0, 12-2) by a half game in the conference standings, the Royals will welcome the Saints for a battle of the unbeatens Saturday night in the Oven.