Box Score by Benny Benton
BELMONT, N.C. – Barton College shot 58 percent from the field in the final period and 76 percent from the line on 17 second-half attempts to pull away to an 85-71 Conference Carolinas men's basketball victory Saturday at the Wheeler Center.
The win was the fifth in a row and ninth in 10 games for Barton (12-4, 7-1), which now shares the league lead with just one other team – King University – after Lees-McRae College suffered a loss on Saturday.
BC's efficient play in the final stanza came after it largely abandoned the 3-point shot. After missing the opening attempt of the second half, the Bulldogs were just 1-of-8 from beyond the arc, so they only took two more the rest of the game (missing both of those as well).
Instead, Barton used penetrating drives from its guards and crisp inside passing from its big men to create layups and draw fouls. The 58 percent shooting in the period, which came on 18 of 31 attempts from the floor, was the best percentage in any half for BC this year.
The style of offense led to balanced scoring. Junior Daniel Westbrook paced the Bulldogs with 18 points, while senior Dominique Byrd and sophomore Danny Shand each followed with 17. Byrd also had a game-high 11 rebounds, giving him his third double-double of the season. Senior Jake Veasley chipped in 10 points, all in the second half, and Ryan Canoy added nine points and a career-high five steals.
Barton also won the rebound battle, 40-31. The Bulldogs have not been out-rebounded in their last nine games.
Belmont Abbey (5-11, 2-7) stayed close thanks to Ray Chen, who scored a game-high 23 points. Chen went 6-for-6 from the field in the opening period while scoring 16 points, but the Bulldogs stepped up their defense on the junior guard in the second half.
The Crusaders made 7-of-19 from 3-point range (37 percent) and shot 45 percent (26-of-58) overall. Guards Nick Hough and Ben Ferguson contributed 14 and 10 points, respectively.
Barton took its largest lead of the first half at 36-31 on its only 3-pointer of the game – courtesy of Westbrook – with 58 seconds left in the period, and BC went to intermission with three-point cushion, 36-33.
Belmont Abbey, which led by as many as four points in the first half, climbed back into the lead briefly at 41-40 on a 3-pointer by Markel Pollard with 18:22 to play. However, Shand made a layup on the next possession to move Barton back in front, and after a BAC miss, Byrd produced a three-point play to put the Bulldogs up four.
That would be as close as Belmont Abbey would get the rest of the way. The Crusaders cut two eight-point leads for Barton down to four, the last time on a pair of free throws by Tyler Horn with 10:21 remaining. But the Bulldogs used consecutive layups by Canoy, Westbrook and Veasley to push the advantage into double-digits at 66-56 with 8:11 to go.
Barton scored 26 of its 49 second-half points in the paint and added 13 points from the free throw line, where it was 18 of 23 for the game (78 percent).
The Bulldogs return home for a big matchup with Lees-McRae on Tuesday. The Bobcats are tied for third in the league at 6-2 after losing at home to Emmanuel College on Saturday. Game time is 7:30 p.m. in Wilson Gymnasium.
