Box Score by Benny Benton
DUE WEST, S.C. – With its starters either in foul trouble or underperforming, the Barton College men's basketball team looked to its bench for a spark early in the second half of Tuesday night's Conference Carolinas battle at Erskine College. The Bulldog reserves responded by producing a 15-5 run that put BC in control of an eventual 75-66 victory at Belk Arena.
Barton's two leading scorers on the season, Jake Veasley and Danny Shand, both left the game after picking up their third foul within the first five minutes of the second half, and Erskine trailed by just four at 50-46 following a jumper by Thomas Nolan Jr. with 12:52 to play.
But R.J. Claypool produced a three-point play off an offensive rebound and senior Ryan Canoy added a jumper off another offensive board to push the BC advantage to nine. The Fleet closed to within six twice on baskets by Joby Glymph, but jumpers by Dorian Johnson and Canoy and 3-pointers by Matt Woods and Zach Grant gave Barton its biggest lead of the night at 65-51 with 8:13 remaining.
Erskine (5-5, 2-2) cut the lead to single-digits with 1:36 left, but Barton (8-4, 3-1) made enough free throws down the stretch to hold on for the league road victory.
Freshman Tashawn Sampson reached double-figures for the first time in his Barton career. The Wake Forest, N.C., resident tossed in a team-high 13 points, almost all of them scored on 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range.
Veasley and Shand each added 12 points, and Claypool chipped in nine. Woods, a freshman from Swannanoa, N.C., dished out a game- and career-high seven assists.
Glymph, who leads the conference in scoring, exceeded his 22.3 point-per-game average with a game-high 24 points for the Fleet, and Maurice Daniels Jr. contributed 10.
Erskine enjoyed a whopping 23-9 edge in rebounding during the first half, but Barton fought back with a 27-10 advantage in the decisive second period. The tide turned in part due to the fact that the Fleet shot just 31 percent (8 of 26) in the second half while Barton made 56 percent (15 of 27). But BC also helped itself greatly with 10 second-half rebounds on the offensive glass after collecting just two in the opening frame.
Barton missed five of its first six shots in the game, four of those from 3-point range, and Erskine jumped out to a 7-2 cushion, its biggest lead of the night.
A 3-pointer by Daniel Westbrook and consecutive 3-pointers by Sampson put the Bulldogs up 11-7 five minutes into the game. Erskine answered with consecutive treys to regain the lead, 13-11, and still led by two at 17-15 when a 3-pointer by Veasley started a 10-4 run that gave BC its biggest lead of the half at 25-19 with 7:11 left before intermission.
The Flying Fleet scored the game's next five points to quickly close the deficit back to one, and the two sides remained close for the rest of the half before heading to the break tied at 36-all.
Barton scored the first six points of the second half, but Daniels produced the next five points for Erskine. A dunk by Dominique Byrd and a 3-pointer by Veasley put BC up 47-41, but the Fleet climbed back to within four before Barton's bench led the team on its decisive run.
The contest was the second of four straight road games for the Bulldogs. Barton will return to South Carolina this weekend for games on Friday night at North Greenville University and Saturday night at Limestone College.
