CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Queens' Reggie Hopkins (Gastonia, N.C., Ashbrook) hit a pair of free throws with five seconds remaining to regain the lead and seal a 59-58 victory at Limestone Thursday night. The win gives the Royals (16-5, 12-1 Conference Carolinas) a virtual three game cushion over the second-place Saints (16-5, 10-3)

The Royals have more to celebrate than a hard-earned victory: Hopkins' 16 points push him pass Chris Benson for first place on the program's career points list.

Ahead  52-44 with 10:39 to play, the Royals lead began to slip when the Saints mounted a 7-0 run that pulled them to within 52-51 at the 7:44 mark. Over the next four minutes, Queens would outscore Limestone, but only 4-2 to push their advantage to 56-53. A three-pointer by Jarrell Douglass with 3:03 on the clock tied the game and a wide open layup by sophomore forward Joe Raga delivered Limestone's first lead of the game with 1:57 remaining, 58-56.

Junior guard Daniel Bailey (Irmo, S.C., Hammond ) then converted on one of two free throws to narrow the margin to 58-57 with 53 seconds to play. After snagging the rebound off of a Limestone miss, Queens ran the clock down to 13 seconds before turning the ball over and committing a foul. The Royals benefited from a missed front end of a one-and-one and drew a foul at the other end to go to the line. That would be the difference maker as Hopkins calmly sank both shots and the Royals defense staved off a last second attempt to secure the 59-58 victory.

In the first half, Queens wasted no time as Hopkins nailed a pair of three-pointers from straight away to fuel a 10-4 run over the first 3:29. They would soon stretch that lead to 17-6 before taking their largest advantage of the game at 27-11 with 9:09 remaining in the half. At that point, the Saints stepped up on both ends of the court as they rode nine straight points from Douglass to close to within 29-21 on a 10-2 run.

A monstrous dunk from freshman forward Brent Evans (Beaufort, S.C., Battery Creek), followed by a three-pointer from sophomore guard Brandon Nichols (Fayetteville, N.C., Jack Britt), then sparked a 7-2 run that gave the Royals a 36-23 lead with 1:22 left in the half. A three-pointer from sophomore forward Ryan Bogdan then narrowed the gap to 36-26 heading into the break.

The Royals stretched their lead to 40-28 in the opening minutes of the second half but Limestone refused to go away, clawing back to within 42-38 behind a 10-2 run with 15:04 to play. Solid defense over the next several minutes extended the lead back to 51-44 but once again it would not stay that way as the Saints mounted their second half rally, coming up just short.

The Royals return to action Tuesday February 15 when they welcome Barton to the Oven for a 7:30 pm tip.