Box Score
by John Hackney
WILSON, N.C.-Nationally 15th-ranked Barton College broke from a 61-61 deadlock with under four minutes left Saturday night to post a hard-fought 76-68 Conference Carolinas men's basketball victory over visiting Erskine College.
The seventh consecutive win left the Bulldogs 14-2 overall and 9-1 in the league. Since both Limestone College and King College lost on Saturday, Barton now holds a two-game lead in the league standings in the loss column over the Tornado and three over the Saints. Erskine slipped to 11-5 overall and 7-5 in the conference. Barton, which also won its first seven games to open the season, plays at archrival Mount Olive at 7:30 Thursday night.
Freshman 6-foot-5 guard Chris Flemmings and senior point guard Gerald Boston paced the victors, who have now won their last three games by the same 76-68 score, with 22 points apiece. Flemmings hit 8-of-13 shots for a career-high point total with his Green Hope High School coach and former Barton standout John Green in the stands. Boston was 6-of-11 from the floor, 9-of-11 from the foul line and had seven rebounds, four steals and three assists. Senior 6-4 forward Jon Hart tallied 12 points and eight rebounds and senior guard Aaron Brown notched a season-best 10 assists and a team-high nine rebounds.
For the Flying Fleet, 6-0 junior guard DeShaun Hall had 23 points and nine rebounds; 6-6 senior center Corey Sorrell totaled 17 points and seven boards; and junior guard Mike Gabbard added 14 points and six assists.
Gabbard's layup with 3:34 left made it 61-61, but Boston bolted downcourt and found Flemmings for a 3-pointer that gave Barton the lead for good. Meanwhile, Erskine went more than 3 1/2 minutes without a point as the Bulldogs' lead soared to 68-61 behind a Boston jumper and one foul shot apiece from Brown and Boston.
Barton converted just 4-of-8 foul shots in the next few minutes as Erskine clawed within 70-68 with 26 seconds left on a layup by Hall, a Gabbard 3-pointer and two free throws by Hall.
Boston swished four straight free throws and Hart scored a layup just before the buzzer to account for the final margin. Hart made two big steals and Boston grabbed several key defensive rebounds down the stretch to keep the Fleet at bay.
Gabbard and Hall scored in the first minute to give Erskine a 4-0 to start the game, but Flemmings drilled the first of his four 3-pointers to ignite the Bulldogs, who led 23-16 with 11 minutes left in the half on a Boston layup. A 13-2 run by the Fleet that was punctuated by a Roderick Perkins layup gave the visitors a 29-25 edge. Erskine's largest lead was six at 38-32 on two free throws by Sorrell at :44, but Boston pulled the Bulldogs within 38-35 at intermission with a 3-point bomb.
Erskine did not relinquish the lead until Flemmings canned another trey with 10:56 remaining. Barton never lost the lead from that point forward, although it was tied briefly on Gabbard's jumper at the 3:36 mark.
Both teams shot 45 percent from the floor, with Barton cashing in 28-of-62 attempts and Erskine bucketing 25-of-55. The Bulldogs were 6-of-20 from 3-point land and 14-of-24 (58 percent) from the foul line. Erskine was 5-of-17 from beyond the arc and 13-of-19 (68 percent) from the line. Barton dominated the boards 43-30.
