Union Pines has found the going tough on the road during the second half of the Cape Fear Valley (CFV) conference basketball season.

Coming off consecutive CFV home wins last week, the Vikes dropped their third straight league road game Tuesday in Angier, suffering an upset loss at the hands of the Harnett Central Trojans (4-7, 10-9).

The fifth-place Trojans simply outplayed the Vikings (11-10, 7-4) in every facet of the game to come away with a convincing 67-56 victory. In the contest Central completely controlled the boards on both ends, forced more turnovers, came away with more loose balls, and outshot Union Pines in the paint, from the field, behind the arc and at the free throw line; capturing a major late season league victory to split the season series with the Vikings.

Union Pines is now 3-3 on the road in CFV play and 4-1 at home. The Vikes do play two of their final conference contests at Union Pines.

The Vikes are in third place, three games behind conference co-leaders Southern Lee and Overhills, and two games ahead of fourth-place South Johnston.

Tuesday, the teams battled back and forth in the first half. After trailing 12-7 early the Vikes rallied to a 25-18 advantage only to have Central rally to take a 32-29 lead at half on a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Aerial Chatman.

The Trojans carried the momentum into the second half by scoring 11 of the first 15 points to take a 42-33 lead. The lead increased to 50-38 entering the fourth quarter.

The Union Pines defense simply had no answer for the Trojans' sophomore Brian Taylor who made seven of 11 shots from the field to lead all scorers with 20 points to go along with 10 rebounds. He scored eight of his points in the final quarter. Chatman and Roc Harris each scored 12 points for the Trojans.

Justin Marshall finished with a career-high 17 points (including three treys) to lead Union Pines. Jon Toomer ended with 15 points for the Vikes, while Will Maness connected three times from behind the arc on his way to scoring 11.

The Vikings are back in action tonight in Cameron, as they host the CFV Triton Hawks on Hall of Fame Night, immediately following the end of the varsity girls' game, which is scheduled to tip at 6:30 p.m.

Contact F.W. Manning II at 639-5481 or by email at fwm2@nc.rr.com.