Box Score by Benny Benton
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. – Junior Matthew McIntosh scored the last of his game-high 20 points on a layup with just seven-tenths of a second remaining, lifting Elizabeth City State University to a 74-72 home win over Barton College Saturday in the RL Vaughan Center.
Barton (7-4) had tied the game at 72-all on a layup by Danny Shand with 1:22 to play, and the Bulldogs gained possession following a Tyler Thayer steal with 53 seconds left. However, DeCarlos Anderson, who had committed the turnover, came up with a steal of his own with 24 seconds remaining, setting up ECSU (4-6) for its game-winning play.
The Vikings snapped a four-game winning streak for Barton that included a 78-62 win over Elizabeth City State on December 9 in Wilson, N.C.
In addition to the 20 points from McIntosh, Elizabeth City State received 10 points each from Anderson and Jermaine Brown, who also had a game-high nine rebounds.
Barton was paced by 14 points from senior Jake Veasley, who was playing in his first game since November 24 due to injury. Shand and Daniel Westbrook each added 12, and Westbrook joined Dominique Byrd in collecting a team-high six rebounds.
As a team, the Bulldogs enjoyed a nine-rebound edge (36 to 27), but forced a season-low nine turnovers while committing 18.
Barton used consecutive 3-pointers from Thayer to take an early six-point lead in the contest, and extended the advantage to as many as nine on a layup by Matt Woods with 12:32 left in the first half.
A pair of three-point plays helped the Vikings trim the margin to just one point two minutes later, and ECSU took its first lead of the game on a layup by Jordan Jones with 8:37 left before intermission.
Westbrook drained back-to-back 3-pointers and Byrd added a layup to help Barton move back up by eight, 34-26, with 5:58 to go in the half, but Elizabeth City State closed the period with a layup by James Theus that cut the margin back to one at 38-37.
Barton scored the first basket of the second half to move in front by three, but ECSU scored the next eight points to take a 46-40 advantage. The Vikings took their biggest lead of the game at 51-44 on a 3-pointer by Anderson, but a layup by Shand and consecutive layups by Veasley pulled BC right back within one.
Neither team enjoyed a lead of more than three points over the game's final eight minutes.
Barton held its last advantage at 68-67 with 4:02 to play, but missed four consecutive shots on the same possession around the three-minute mark and then lost the lead on a dunk by Brown on the other end.
A free throw by Brown with 1:50 to go put the Vikings up three, 72-69, but Shand scored the game's next three points to tie the game at 72 and set up the finale.
The contest kicked off a four-game road swing for the Bulldogs. Barton will play its first Conference Carolinas game of 2016 on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Due West, S.C., against Erskine College.
