Box Score
by John Hackney
WILSON, N.C.-Barton College swished 7-of-13 3-pointers in the first half Saturday night and benefited from 19 Lees-McRae turnovers to lead 55-18 at intermission en route to a convincing 100-62 Conference Carolinas men's basketball victory.
The win lifted the Bulldogs' Dog House (home) record to 9-1 this season. The league leaders improved to 17-5 overall and 12-4 in the conference with four games left in the regular season. Lees-McRae left at 2-20 overall and 2-14 in the league. Barton, which beat LMC 94-63 in their first meeting this season, entertains Queens University of Charlotte on Wednesday night at approximately 7:30 p.m.
Barton hit 18-of-36 shots from the floor in the first half and was 12-of-13 from the foul line as it rolled up leads of 20-2 and 33-4. Senior guard Gerald Boston led the Barton assault with 19 points and five assists in the opening half while freshman teammate Chris Flemmings canned 4-of-5 from downtown for 12 points. The Bulldogs also controlled the backboards 21-14 in the opening 20 minutes and held the Bobcats to 6-of-22 shooting (27.3 percent).
Boston finished with a game-high 27 points on 8-of-15 shooting and had seven assists and seven rebounds. Flemmings tallied 22 points (tied career-high) on 6-of-8 from beyond the arc and 6-4 senior Jon Hart scored 15 points and yanked a game-high 11 rebounds for his league-leading ninth double-double. Senior guard Aaron Brown added a game-best eight assists, four steals, four points and four rebounds. Overall, Barton was 33-of-66 from the field for 50 percent and swished 23-of-26 from the foul line for 88.5 percent.
Lees-McRae got 14 points from 6-3 senior guard Daniel Sepokas and 10 from 6-4 junior guard Will Lopez. The Bobcats were just 19-of-49 from the floor for 38.8 percent but did make 19-of-24 charity shots for 79.2 percent. Barton won the rebounding war 38-27 and posted advantages of 33-13 in points off turnovers and 18-2 in fast break points.
A jumper by Boston, a dunk by Hart, a Boston 3-point bomb and a layup from Brian McNair set the Bulldogs off to the races with a 9-0 start. After a Bobcats basket, Jarrett Jernigan scored off a tip-in, Zach Faircloth made a layup and then Boston converted a three-point play and a layup around a Brown layup for the 20-2 start.
Barton tallied the first five points of the second half and ran the lead to 47 points on two occasions early in the half. All 15 players played for the Bulldogs, with 12 of them scoring points.
