Box Score by Doug Page
MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. – Barton College redshirt senior Alex Kimble made 1-of-2 free-throws with 12 seconds left in the fourth quarter to knot the score 78-78, but a three-point attempt by the University of Mount Olive's Ni'Ya Styles with three seconds remaining propelled the Trojans to an 81-78 win over the Lady Bulldogs on Friday in Conference Carolinas action.
The Lady Bulldogs (20-8, 15-5) will enter the conference tournament as the No. 3 seed and will host No. 6 seed Lees-McRae College at 7 p.m. on Feb. 26 in a quarterfinal matchup. The Trojans (12-16, 10-10) will enter the tournament as the No. 5 seed and face No. 4 seed King University in the quarterfinal round.
Senior Tatyana Jackson scored a career-high 22 points for Barton and went 6-of-7 from downtown. Jackson finished 7-of-10 from the floor while recording a game-high eight assists. Junior Kianna Wynn went 7-of 14 from the floor and finished with 19 points, while junior Dinah Neal tallied 15 points for the Lady Bulldogs. Kimble added 11 points and seven boards for BC, while freshman Shanika Peterkin tallied nine blocks, 16 rebounds, three steals, and four points.
Felecity Havens paced the Trojans with a game-high 34 points on 14-of-36 shooting from the floor. Havens also added 10 boards to complete the double-double. Styles went 10-of-22 from the floor and 4-of-10 from downtown to finish the contest with 25 points. Jada Bacchus notched a game-high 16 boards to go along with 10 points for the Trojans, while Jaylyn Copeland added 13 rebounds and a team-high six assists.
It would take almost a minute before either side registered a point as Barton took a 2-0 lead following a layup from Wynn. Neal helped to open the BC lead to 6-2 after finishing a layup with 6:21 left on the clock. After knotting the score at 10-10 with just over three minutes to go in the quarter, Jackson drained her first three of the night to give BC a 13-10 advantage. Wynn upped the lead to 15-12 for the Lady Bulldogs and senior Taura Jones hit a free-throw to give Barton a four-point edge. Styles wouldn't let the Trojans finish the quarter without another basket as she drained a three with three ticks left to trim the gap to 16-15.
After falling behind 17-16 to start the second quarter, Barton would go on an 11-0 run to open a 27-17 advantage with 5:43 left on the clock following a layup by Kimble. Mount Olive cut into the deficit as Copeland made a jumper to pull the Trojans within four points. Wynn tallied the next six points for Barton to increase the lead back to 35-27 with 1:27 left until the end of the first-half. The Lady Bulldogs took a 40-33 advantage into the locker room after trading buckets with less than 15 seconds left to play.
The Trojans would turn the tide in the third quarter as BC held a lead until Styles hit a layup with 1:02 left on the clock to make it 54-53 UMO. Barton went the final 3:38 of the quarter without a bucket and would only register three points at the charity stripe, while Mount Olive used a 10-3 run to take a 59-54 lead to the fourth quarter.
Styles stretched Mount Olive's lead to 63-54 before Jackson countered with a layup to get BC back onto the scoreboard. Jackson and Neal would team up to trim the gap to 64-63 as Jackson connected on a three and would be followed by a layup from Neal. The Lady Bulldogs fought to keep the game within a possession and would knot the score at 74-74 with 2:21 left as Neal went 1-for-2 at the charity stripe.
Barton would claw its way back to take a 77-74 lead with 1:45 left as Kimble hit a three for the Lady Bulldogs. BC would tally just one more point in the final minute of the game as Havens started the comeback for UMO with 44 seconds left. Her layup pulled the Trojans within a point of BC and started the momentum shift. Havens then gave Mount Olive a 78-77 lead with 30 seconds left after getting an offensive rebound off a missed shot by Styles.
The Bulldogs had a chance to take a lead as Kimble went to the line for a pair of shots with 12 ticks remaining. She would hit one of her shots to knot the score and look to make one last defensive stop to send the game to overtime. Styles had a different ending to her script as the senior came up with yet another huge shot for the Trojans. Styles let go of a three with two ticks left on the clock and sink it to put her team up 81-78 and seal the victory for UMO.
The contest featured five lead changes and six ties, while BC shot 40.9 percent from the floor compared to Mount Olive's 39 percent. Both teams shot 33.3 percent from downtown as the Lady Bulldogs made seven treys while the Trojans made six. Mount Olive pulled down 49 boards, just one more than Barton in the contest. The two areas that Mount Olive capitalized in was points off turnovers (27) and second-chance points (16).
