ROME, Ga-- The University of Mobile men's basketball team defeated Brewton-Parker 58-55 Wednesday to advance to Thursday's quarterfinals at the 2012 Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament.

Mobile (14-16) will battle 2nd-ranked Shorter University Thursday at 6 pm in the quarterfinals.

Antonio Hester finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds for Mobile, Brock Dockery added 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point range and Matthew Turner added 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting off the bench. Marcus Polnett and Ji Kimbrough each dished out 5 assists.

Wendell Williams led Brewton-Parker with 12 points, while Darrie Stephens added 11 points and 16 rebounds, including 9 offensive boards.

The Rams out shot the Barons 48% to 32% from the floor and 40% (6-of-15) to 24% (6-of-25) from 3-point range. After hitting only 1-of-3 from the charity stripe in the first half, Mobile went 9-of-17 in the final half, while Brewton-Parker went only 3-of-7.

Brewton started hot, hitting 2-of-3 from downtown to build an 8-0 lead, and they eventually built a 23-17 advantage with 6:34 remaining. From there, the Rams went on an 11-2 spurt over the next 4:11, getting five points from Dockery as Brewton-Parker went 0-for-4 from the floor. The Rams took a 30-29 lead into the break.

The second half was closely-contested with six lead changes, and the score was within three points or less for all but 1:04 of the period. That was win Mobile grabbed a pair of 4-point leads at the 16:37 and 15:06 marks, but the Barons answered with a 3-pointer each time. Stephens hit a free throw with 3:33 left to give the Barons a 54-53 lead, but Turner answered back for Mobile just 20 seconds later to retake the lead for good for Mobile. The rest of the way, the Barons managed only one point, going 1-of-2 from the free throw line and going 0-for-4 from the floor. With 18 seconds left, Marcus Polnett went to the free throw line and missed a pair, but he grabbed the offensive board. After Hester missed another one with 12 seconds to go, Polnett grabbed another offensive board to run more time off the clock.