Box Score by Benny Benton
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Nationally-ranked Carson-Newman used a 20-7 run midway through the first half to open up a 15-point lead, then used a 10-0 second-half spurt to finish off Barton College in a 97-69 victory Friday at Holt Fieldhouse.
Junior Evan Shelton had 11 points and six rebounds in the loss for Barton, now 1-2 on the season. The Bulldogs' leading scorer, Chris Flemmings, also tossed in 11 points, but did so while being limited to a 3-of-15 shooting night.
Antoine Davis, the 2012 South Atlantic Conference Player of the Year, went over the 1,000-point mark for his career on his way to an 18-point night in Carson-Newman's season-opener. Davis also had seven assists and seven rebounds for the Eagles, ranked No. 22 in the NABC/Division II Coaches' Preseason Poll.
Ishmael Sanders, the SAC's No. 2 scorer last year behind Davis, tossed in a game-high 21 and chipped in five steals, while Jared Johnson contributed 15 points.
However, it was forward Carson Brooks whose work hurt Barton the most, as he scored 14 of his 18 points when the game was still competitive in the first half, including nine in the first-half run as the Eagles pulled away.
Barton held the lead in the game just once, pulling in front 6-5 on a 3-pointer by Flemmings 2:13 into the contest. Carson-Newman immediately regained the lead on a Brooks layup, the start of a 7-0 run.
The Bulldogs closed to within two at 14-12 on a Kendall Patterson 3-pointer with 11:28 remaining in the first half, but Davis matched that trey with a 3-pointer of his own on the other end to push the C-N lead back to five, 17-12. That shot was the start of the 20-7 run that gave the Eagles a comfortable 34-19 advantage with 6:06 left before intermission. Brooks, who matched his career high in the game, had two dunks, a 3-pointer and a layup during the surge.
Barton closed the gap slightly, pulling within 11 at 43-32 on a dunk by Khari Faison with 1:24 left, but consecutive layups by Johnson started another 7-0 run that put Carson-Newman up 50-35 at the break.
It was the first time the Bulldogs had given up 50 in the first half of a game since a 98-92 loss at King in January of the 2011-12 season.
With the Eagles' lead up to 20 at 64-44, Barton made one final push, using three free throws by Flemmings, a jumper by Shelton and a layup by Travis McEachern to cut the deficit to 13 at 64-51. But after a C-N timeout, Johnson made a basket and Sanders made a layup to end any thoughts of a rally by the Bulldogs
Barton shot just 35 percent from the field (26 of 74) in the game, and also struggled to slow the Eagles on their end of the court, as Carson-Newman shot better than 50 percent (32 of 63). The Bulldogs struggled to get any defensive pressure on the Eagles, as C-N turned the ball over just 12 times in the game, including just four times in the first half when the game was still close, and recorded assists on 26 of their 32 field goals.
The 28-point loss was the largest suffered by a Barton team since the Bulldogs fell 68-38 to Erskine on Jan. 22, 2005.
Barton and the Eagles met on day one of the Carson-Newman Classic, which saw Tusculum defeat Trevecca Nazarene, 110-106, in a regulation game earlier in the afternoon. The event will continue on Saturday, with Barton squaring off against Tusculum at 3 p.m.
