ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. — Top seeded N.C. Wesleyan College used tough defense to open the second half en route to an 81-66 victory over No. 8 seed Averett in Thursday's USA South Conference Tournament quarterfinals hosted by N.C. Wesleyan.
 
After trailing by one going into the break, Averett (15-11) grabbed the first three points of the second period to establish a 40-39 edge over N.C. Wesleyan (20-6) a little over two minutes into the half. However, the Battling Bishops toughened up on defense and forced five Averett turnovers on their way to a 22-0 run that broke the game wide open.
 
Despite finding themselves in a hole, the Cougars fought back and got their deficit down to eight thanks to a layup from senior Bradley Robinson that made it 67-59 with 4:19 on the clock. That's as close Averett would get though as N.C. Wesleyan clamped down on defense to pick up the win.
 
Robinson led the way for the Cougars offensively as he put up 16 points, while senior Carter Jones and junior Charles Bryant each finished with 10 points. Bryant also had a team-high eight rebounds and senior Trevor West brought down six boards and dished out a team-high four assists. Jones grabbed five rebounds.
 
Averett's defense came out strong early, forcing two shot clock violations less than three minutes into the game. The Cougars used this to their advantage as they built a 6-3 lead at the 17:25 mark. N.C. Wesleyan battled back and took a 15-10 lead at the second media timeout with 11:26 left to play in the first period. From there, Robinson heated up from 3-point range, hitting back-to-back triples to get Averett within one at 17-16 with 9:53 remaining.
 
Robinson's performance jump-started a Cougars' rally as they built a 25-21 lead with 7:32 on the clock. However, the Battling Bishops scored the game's next four points to even the score at 25-25 with less than seven minutes remaining. N.C. Wesleyan built its lead to as many as four a minute later, but Robinson drained another 3 to get Averett within one at 29-28 with 5:25 on the clock.
 
The rest of the half was a back-and-forth affair that featured five lead changes. Averett took a 32-31 thanks to a goaltending call on Bryant's layup at the 2:39 mark. The Battling Bishops though scored eight of the game's next 13 points to take a 39-37 lead going into the break thanks to an Adrian Moore 3-pointer with four ticks on the clock.
 
Robinson continued his climb up Averett's all-time scoring list in his final game in an Averett uniform. Robinson's 16-point performance gave him 1,334 career points and helped him move past Chad Ford (1989-1993), who had 1,325 points. Robinson also moved into seventh place on the program's all-time rebounding list as well, finishing with 562.
 
Additionally, Jones finishes his career with 671 rebounds and currently sits in third place on Averett's all-time rebounding list. Jones also moved into 12th place this season on the Cougars' all-time scoring list as well. West ends his career with 1,028 points to put him in 11th on the program's all-time scoring list.
 
N.C. Wesleyan's Adrian Moore scored a career-high 30 points to help the Battling Bishops to the victory.