Barton defeats MOC Women

By MOC Sports Information
Published in Sports on January 19, 2007 2:34 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- The Barton College women's basketball team weathered a late second-half rally and drained 10 of 12 free throws in the closing minutes during Thursday's 79-68 victory over archrival Mount Olive College at Kornegay Arena.

The Bulldogs (11-3 overall) improved to 7-1 in Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference play and have won three straight regular-season road games against the Trojans. Mount Olive (7-8, 4-5) saw its three-game win streak come to an end.

Sophomore guard Brittney Robich scored a career-high 21 points for MOC. Jo Denevan collected a career-high 29 points and pulled down 13 rebounds for Barton, an NCAA Division II East Regional qualifier last season.

Robich hit three 3-pointers in a span of less than three minutes to stake the Trojans to a 15-8 advantage with 14 minutes, 13 seconds left in the first half. The Bulldogs rallied for a 20-19 lead six minutes later and would never trail the rest of the game.

Barton built the lead to eight points as the Bulldogs held the Trojans without a field goal for almost seven minutes. Tomeka Prichard's 3-pointer with 4:31 ended the drought and brought Mount Olive within 28-25. The Bulldogs extended the lead to six points, but Keona Corley converted a conventional three-point play with 25 seconds left.

Corley added a free throw to pull the Trojans within 38-36 at halftime.

The Bulldogs scored eight of their first 12 points of the second half from the free throw line and took their first double-digit lead at 50-40 with 13:19 remaining. Baskets by Prichard and Helen Moore helped the Trojans cut the lead down to five, but that was as close as Mount Olive would get.

Adrienne Walker's 3-pointer highlighted an 8-0 run and Esty Flores' basket with 4:56 remaining gave Barton its biggest lead at 67-50.

Robich's 3-pointer keyed a Mount Olive run and her 10-foot baseline jumper with 1:52 remaining brought the Trojans within 70-61. But Flores hit all of her six free throw attempts in the final 90 seconds as Barton sealed the win from the free throw line.

Corley finished with a career-best 15 points, along with eight assists, five rebounds and three steals for Mount Olive. Moore finished with 13 points for her 13th consecutive double-figure performance of the season.