Box Score by Benny Benton
MURFREESBORO, N.C.–Senior guard Nyeshea Willie scored 16 of her game-high 19 points in the second half to keep Barton College close in its game with Chowan University Tuesday night, but the Hawks outscored the Lady Bulldogs 9-1 during a key closing stretch to take a 67-59 non-conference victory at the Helms Center.
Chowan (2-1) scored seven of those nine points from the free throw line, missing just once. The Hawks were 23 of 28 from the charity stripe in the game (82.1 percent), while Barton (1-2) was just 11 of 17 (64.7 percent).
Guard Rachel Gostomski was 7 of 8 from the line, while forward Alisha Mobley was 5 of 6. The two players shared the team lead in scoring for the Hawks with 13 points. Janelle Murphy and Summer Curtis each added 10 points, and Courtni Williams grabbed a game-high seven rebounds.
In addition to Willie's 19 points, the Lady Bulldogs received 10 points from Cassandra Brown, and eight points and five rebounds from Brianna Thomas. Guard Ashley Thornton also collected five rebounds.
As a team, the Hawks out-rebounded Barton 44 to 27, including a 13 to 6 edge on the offensive glass.
Two of those offensive rebounds came at just the right time for Chowan. Trailing 50-47 following a jumper by Barton's Thomas with 9:23 left, the Hawks went on a 9-0 run, four of those scored on second-chance points by Mobley.
Now trailing 56-50, Willie scored the next four points for the Lady Bulldogs to close the gap to two, 56-54, with just over four minutes to play, but then Chowan went on its 9-1 stretch run. Gostomski started the spurt by making the second of her two free throw attempts after Thomas drew her fifth foul with 3:33 to go.
Willie then missed a shot on the other end, and Kaela Nelson made a jump shot to put the Hawks up five. Thornton was also called for her fifth foul and disqualified with 2:54 left, and Murphy made both free throws to push the Hawks' lead to seven, 61-54.
Shadawn Clanton pulled Barton one point closer by making the second of two free throws, but Chowan scored the next four points from the line to post their biggest lead of the night and put the game away, 65-55, with 1:39 remaining.
Barton forced Chowan into 21 turnovers in the game and outscored the Hawks 21-9 on points off those turnovers, but Chowan only turned the ball over twice in the game's crucial last four minutes.
Although Willie met her early-season scoring average for Barton in the game, she did so in unusual fashion. The returning all-region performer scored the Lady Bulldogs' first basket of the game, but then didn't score again in the half. She drew her second foul with just over 10 minutes to go and did not return to the lineup until after intermission.
Trailing 11-9 when she left, Barton went on a surprising 7-0 run, the first three points provided by Kaila Lea and the next four by Clanton. Lea came off the bench to score all seven of her points in the half.
The Lady Bulldogs took their biggest lead of the game at 21-15 on a Tiffany Webster free throw with 4:23 left before halftime, and still led 25-20 when the Hawks went on a 5-0 run to tie the game. All five points came from the foul line. The two teams then traded baskets and went to the half still tied at 27-all.
Willie made up for only registering three points in the first half by scoring 12 of Barton's first 13 points of the second period. The final points in that stretch for Willie gave the Lady Bulldogs a 40-38 lead, and Webster followed with a layup to give Barton a four-point advantage with 11:55 to go.
Chowan went on an 8-0 run to swing the four-point lead its way, but Brown scored four points in a 5-0 Barton run that put the Lady Bulldogs back in front, 50-47, with 9:23 to go. There were five ties and 12 lead changes in the contest before Chowan finally took the lead for good, 51-50, on Mobley's putback with 7:42 remaining.
Barton will attempt to get back to .500 on the young season when it makes its 2013-14 home debut on Saturday at 2 p.m. against USC Aiken.
