Box Score by Benny Benton
BELMONT, N.C. – The Barton College men's basketball team rolled out to a 25-4 lead midway through the first half and cruised from there in collecting an 86-64 Conference Carolinas victory over host Belmont Abbey College Wednesday night at the Wheeler Center.
Sophomore Kendall Patterson led the Bulldogs with 21 points, most of them scored on 5-of-6 shooting from 3-point range. Freshman Danny Shand, the reigning conference player of the week, scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half before resting most of the second period. Junior transfer Dominique Byrd chipped in his first Barton double-double with 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Nick Hough led a young Crusaders lineup with 16 points. Ray Chen added 14 points for Belmont Abbey (0-3, 0-1) and Markel Pollard contributed 13.
Barton (2-1, 1-0) never trailed in the contest, as Patterson set the tone for the game with a 3-pointer on the Bulldogs' first possession. Pollard drew a foul and made two free throws on Belmont Abbey's first turn with the basketball, but the Crusaders didn't score again for the next five minutes.
By then, a free throw by Khari Faison, three consecutive layups by Byrd, Faison and Shand, and a 3-pointer by Jordan Sharpe had pushed the Bulldogs to a comfortable 13-2 advantage before the first media timeout.
Chen posted Belmont Abbey's first field goal on a layup with 13:45 left in the half, but Barton scored the next 12 points to largely put the game out of reach at 25-4 with 10:16 still left in the first period.
The Crusaders, whose starting lineup featured three freshmen and two sophomores, made just one of their first 15 shots from the field and turned the ball over five times in the first 10 minutes.
Belmont Abbey climbed back within 15 on a 3-pointer by Hough with 3:41 left before intermission, but Shand, Nick Ellison and Ryan Canoy combined on an 11-0 run for the Bulldogs just before the half ended to take their largest lead of the game, 47-21.
Twelve different players were able to get into the scoring column in the game for Barton, which shot 45 percent from the field. The Bulldogs enjoyed a plus-14 rebounding margin (46-32) and a 12-6 edge in steals.
The Bulldogs will return to action on Friday when they compete in the 49th Annual Pickle Classic in Mount Olive, N.C. Barton will face Bluefield State College at 5 p.m. in University of Mount Olive's Kornegay Arena.
