Box Score by Benny Benton
WILSON, N.C. – Freshman Matt Woods and junior Daniel Westbrook broke an 88-all tie with consecutive 3-pointers to give Barton College its final lead in a thrilling 96-92 overtime victory over University of Mount Olive Wednesday night in Wilson Gymnasium.
Mount Olive's Jacque Brown made a layup for the Trojans (13-8, 8-5) with 48 seconds remaining to pull within four, but Westbrook made two free throws with 21 seconds left to put Barton (15-6, 10-3) back up by six. UMO's Jamaal Matin scored on a dunk at the buzzer to trim the final margin, but a packed house still erupted in celebration of BC's first win over its rivals since 2013.
Westbrook, a hometown product of Hunt High School, scored a career-high 25 points in the contest and also added six rebounds. Senior Dominique Byrd added 18 points, nine boards and four blocks, sophomore Danny Shand chipped in 15 points and eight assists, and redshirt senior Ryan Canoy contributed 12 points and eight rebounds in the victory.
Mount Olive's senior point guard, Dontrell Brite, had an outstanding night with a game-high 28 points that included a perfect 11-of-11 performance from the free throw line. The Chesapeake, Va., resident also delivered six assists and six rebounds in a losing cause for the Trojans.
JaQuan Blount added a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds for Mount Olive, and Dominique Reed collected 15 points.
The win kept Barton within a half-game of Conference Carolinas leader King University, and left the Bulldogs all alone in second place after Emmanuel College was upset on the road at Erskine College. Mount Olive slipped to fifth place after the loss, which snapped a four-game winning streak.
Barton broke a 21-all tie with a 9-0 run, capped by five straight points from Woods, to take control of the contest midway through the first half. Mount Olive climbed all the way back to within one on a dunk by Mykel Hart with 2:56 left in the period, but the Bulldogs eased away to a six point halftime advantage, 49-43.
A 3-pointer by Westbrook to open the second half pushed BC's lead to nine, and the Bulldogs would eventually go up by as many as 10 points on three occasions, the final time at 65-55 with 12:55 remaining.
Over the next seven minutes, however, Barton committed five turnovers and missed seven shots, five of them layups or dunks. Mount Olive took advantage to rally all the way back into the lead, moving ahead 71-70 with 6:39 left on a fast-break layup by Brown.
After a Tayon Gleaves free throw increased UMO's lead to two, Barton scored the game's next six points, and eventually built its lead back to seven at 84-77 on a layup by Byrd.
But Barton turned the ball over on each of its next three possessions, and the Trojans used a dunk by Reed, two free throws by Brite and a 3-pointer by Mike Moore to even the score at 84-all with 59 seconds left in regulation.
Shand hit a floater from the left wing with 46 seconds left to put BC in front, but Reed used his 6-6, 230-pound frame to power his way under the basket for a layup that tied the game again at 86-all with 20 seconds to go. Barton then held for the final shot, with Shand taking a jumper from one step inside the free throw line that bounced off the back of the iron.
Mount Olive went 1-for-6 from the floor to start overtime, with all five misses from 3-point range, where the Trojans were just 6-of-22 on the evening (27.3 percent). However, Barton went just 2-of-6 from the free throw line over the same span, leaving the teams tied at 88.
The Bulldogs took the lead for the final time when Woods drained a 3-pointer from the left wing with exactly two minutes to go in overtime. It was the second clutch 3-pointer for the Swannanoa, N.C., resident in just over a week. On January 26, Woods nailed a go-ahead 3-pointer with three seconds to play in BC's 106-103 road win at Pfeiffer University.
Brown tried to answer Woods' trey with one of his own for UMO but missed, and Westbrook put a dagger in the Trojans with a 3-pointer from the top of the key off a cross-court pass from Ryan Canoy with 1:03 remaining.
Mount Olive got a layup from Brown with 48 seconds left to pull within four, but Westbrook drained two free throws with 21 seconds to play to effectively seal the win.
Barton might have done so much earlier in the evening, but Westbrook's made free throws were an exception to much of the night. The Bulldogs went 17 of 34 from the line in the contest, including a 5-of-13 effort in the second half (38.5 percent).
The Bulldogs were nearly as accurate from 3-point range, making 47 percent (7 of 15) from beyond the arc.
The contest kicked off a brutal stretch of schedule for Barton. The Bulldogs will visit fourth-place Lees-McRae College on Saturday before playing a home game against league leader King and then making a long road trip to Georgia to face third-place Emmanuel.
