Barton knocks off Moc women

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on February 12, 2010 12:05 PM

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WILSON -- For the second time this season, Barton got the best of Mount Olive in Conference Carolinas womens' basketball action.

The Bulldogs earned a 76-65 victory at "The Dog House" on Thursday night and clinched a share of the regular-season championship.

"I thought we gave a pretty good effort from the opening tip," said Mount Olive head coach Wendy Lee. "We just did not have enough offense to stay with Barton early in the game.

The Bulldogs (16-5 overall, 15-1 CC) never trailed in the win and built a 13-point lead in the opening 10 minutes. Mount Olive battled back behind a strong performance from Helen Moore and cut the lead to seven at the halftime break.

Moore delivered 11 of the Trojans 28 points in the first half.

"I thought Helen played very hard and she led the team with her effort," said Lee. "We just did not do enough to help her on the offensive end."

Mount Olive (13-9, 11-6) pulled within two points on a 3-pointer from Andrea Jones midway through the second half, but the Bulldogs answered with a 12-3 scoring run that essentially sealed the victory.

The Bulldogs relied on their defense to secure the 'W' down the stretch.

"That is what we do, we play defense all the time," said Bulldogs head coach Wendee Saintsing. "We mixed in some zone, but we were forced to go back to man-to-man and we made it work against a very good offensive team."

Esty Flores paced the Bulldogs with 19 points. The victory sets a school record for the women's program with 12 consecutive wins.

Moore led the Trojans with 26 points and nine rebounds. Shequanta McGee and Jones each added 11 points in the defeat.

Mount Olive entertains Erskine on Saturday.