Box Score
by John Hackney
WILSON N.C.-Senior guard Gerald Boston swished a career-high 35 points Tuesday night as the Barton College men's basketball team moved closer to the top seed in next week's league tourney with a 98-81 conquest of visiting Belmont Abbey College in the Dog House.
Barton improved to 19-6 overall and 14-5 in the league (tied for first with Limestone) with only a Senior Night matchup with visiting archrival Mount Olive on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. remaining in the regular season. Belmont Abbey, ranked seventh in the NCAA DII Southeast Region, exited at 19-8 overall and 12-7 in conference play. Barton, ranked fourth in the Southeast, will host a first-round tourney game on Monday night at 7 p.m. against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.
Boston bettered his career-high by one point with 11-of-17 shooting from the floor and 12-of-13 from the foul line. He also had six assists, including a spectacular alley oop to freshman teammate Chris Flemmings, who dunked it off the break in the final two minutes. Flemmings finished with 16 points by hitting 4-of-11 from downtown and added seven boards. Senior 6-foot-4 forward Jon Hart delivered with 12 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two blocks and senior 6-6 post Keith Manley notched 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
For the Abbey, 6-1 senior guard Tyshawn Good, the nation's leading scorer at 27.1 points per game, matched Boston with 35 points on 12-of-20 shooting. He only had 11 points at halftime. Senior guard Terrone Sheffey tallied 10 points while Darryl Durham, Jay Council and Justin Kuhlman added nine points each.
Barton had an excellent shooting night, canning 33-of-62 shots for 53.2 percent, including 11-of-25 from 3-point range (44 percent). The Crusaders were 26-of-58 for 44.8 percent and hit 6-of-16 for 37.5 percent. The Bulldogs were 21-of-25 from the foul line for 84 percent and Belmont Abbey was 23-of-31 for 74.2 percent. Barton won the battle of the boards 36-30.
The first half featured nine lead changes and three ties, the last one at 27-27 at the 6:57 mark. Boston drove the lane and converted a three-point play, then sank a 3-pointer for a 33-27 lead. After a Good layup, Boston drained a jumper and two foul shots around a 3-pointer by freshman Tristan Thomas for a 40-29 lead. The cushion was 44-33 at intermission after Boston sank two fouls shots for 20 points at the break.
Good scored 10 of the Abbey's first 12 points of the second half, but Barton was still ahead 55-45, thanks to two baskets by Boston, one by Hart and a 3-pointer from Flemmings off a Boston assist. The Crusaders clawed within eight points for the final time at 58-50 on a bucket by Tim Mason, but 3-pointers by Flemmings and Brian McNair, along with two bombs from Thomas, some hard-working plays down low from Hart and more heroics from Boston helped the Bulldogs slowly pull away.
"I thought our guys did a tremendous job executing our game plan tonight," 17th-year head coach Ron Lievense said. "We wanted to keep them working versus our full-court pressure so that they couldn't attack the basket. We had a lot of guys who made a lot of big plays tonight.
"Gerald was in another stratosphere and everybody else played well. I thought Chris, Tristan, Keith and Hart all had great performances. Aaron Brown and Brian McNair also defended with great passion tonight and I was really proud of our team's rebounding."
Lievense said Boston, who has 1,831 career points (just five points shy of tying Tim Black's NCAA DII era school career scoring record), "played his heart out tonight. He showed the heart of a champion and bounced back after having a tough night at Erskine over the weekend. All of them just stepped up to a great level tonight against one of the most athletic teams in our league."
