By Zack Ciboth, Sports Editor
The UNC Pembroke women’s basketball team defeated the Barton Bulldogs in Conference Carolinas action Wednesday night at home. After falling behind early the Braves maganged to fight their way back into the game and use a wake-up call on offense to take down the Bulldogs 76-45.
With the victory tonight for the Braves, coach John Haskins recorded his 250th win as the Braves women’s basketball coach.
“I’ve just been coaching for a long time and you we’ve had some good teams and we’ve had some okay team but just proud of the way our girls have competed and represented the university,” Haskins said on the accomplishment.
The Braves fell into a 7-0 hole early in the first quarter before piecing together a comeback to cut the deficit down to a two-point lead for Barton. Bulldogs led 15-13 entering the second quarter. The Braves started to slowly come alive in a very offensive quarter taking a 21-20 lead late in the second quarter and holding a four-point advantage at the half up 28-24.
“Well, we always talk about the first five minutes, and I think in basketball games the first five minutes are always important,” Haskins said. “The first five of the first half weren’t very good, so we felt like we needed to set the tone, the first five minutes of the second half in terms of energy and I think we did. I think we got a couple buckets pretty early in the second half and just strung it out.”
A pivotal 12-3 scoring run helped keep things alive for the Braves pushed the lead out to 40-27 from the Braves started to fire on all cylinders and take a 55-31 lead over Barton heading into the final quarter. The Bulldogs offense started to dwindle as the Braves cruised at home for the win.
Kayla Hall led the way for the Braves, finishing with 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Zaria Clark posted a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds to go along with four assists on the night. Alcenia Purnell finished the night with 14 points and Hannah Rusell had 11 points and seven rebounds on the night.
“First half wasn’t really like — it was uncharacteristic of us, we were slacking on defense and wasn’t really executing on offense,” Hall said. “So just a wake-up call like you said and had to lock in and just get our focus back.”
The Braves will be back in action Saturday afternoon when they welcome Conference Carolinas foe Lees-McRae to town. Tip-off set for 2 p.m.