MOC Hall of Fame inductee: Russell Stephens

By MOC Sports Information
Published in Sports on November 17, 2006 1:47 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- This year's Mount Olive Alumni Weekend and Pickle Classic festivities will include a new addition as the inaugural Mount Olive College Athletics Hall of Fame Class will be inducted.

The induction ceremony will take place Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Hennessee Room in the Lois K. Murphy Regional Center on the school campus.

The inaugural class is comprised of Kenney Moore, Larry Nance, Clarence Rose, Ray Scarborough and Russell Stephens. As part of the Pickle Classic Countdown, an inductee will be profiled.

Today's profile: Russell Stephens '94.

Of the five inaugural inductees into the Mount Olive College Athletics Hall of Fame, Russell Stephens is the only one to have attended MOC after the school became a four-year college. Stephens was a student at Mount Olive and a member of the Trojan men's basketball team from 1990-94.

In his four years at Mount Olive, Stephens amassed 2,165 points, a Trojan record that still stands today. He was named the 1990-91 Carolinas Conference men's basketball freshman of the year and earned all-conference honors in each of his four years with the Trojans.

Stephens was also a two-time All-District selection and in his senior year, he earned All-America honorable mention.

He had his best game ever near the end of his collegiate career, scoring a career-high 41 points against St. Andrews on Feb. 26, 1994. In his junior year, he averaged 17 points in the Carolinas Conference tournament as he helped lead the seventh-seeded Trojans to upset wins over No. 2 seed Coker and No. 6 seed Barton on the way to a tournament runner-up finish.

In his sophomore year, Stephens scored 37 points in the Trojans' home finale against Barton. He also scored 18 points and hit the winning basket at the buzzer in a win over Coker in the final game of the regular season.

As a freshman, he helped lead Mount Olive to perhaps its biggest victory to that point, scoring 14 points in an 89-88 win over nationally sixth-ranked Pfeiffer.

Stephens has stayed involved in the game since college, spending his professional career as a high school basketball coach.