By Nicholas Kolsin
Men’s Basketball
The UNCP Mens Basketball team (12-6, 10-2 in CC) defeated Barton College 97-65 in a much needed bounce back victory. Dallas Gardner lead the team with 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Elijah Cobb had 14 points and 11 rebounds of his own.
The biggest story of the game was the braves ability to make shots at the rim. 62 of their 97 points came in the paint. The paint scoring was coming from everyone, front court and back court. The Braves shot 61% from the field as opposed to 47.4% from the field in their loss last weekend.
At the under 12 media timeout, the Braves were up 17-15 not being able to pull away from the Bulldogs. Then the Braves got hot, going on a strong 13-0 run lead by dominant plays in the paint including a strong two handed dunk by Joe’l Pettiford to give the Braves a 30-15 lead. The teams traded baskets for the rest of the half with the Braves taking a 42-26 lead into halftime.
After sitting on the bench for the first half, Bradlee Haskell checked into the game after half and immediately made his mark. Haskell checked in at 16:37 of the second half, and 15 seconds later, he scored his first points on a three pointer in the corner. Then on the next Braves possession, he scored again getting to the paint and making a tough basket over a defender. Despite the minutes reduction Haskell still was able score 13 points, shooting 5-7 from the field and 3-3 from three.
The Braves will be back in action on Feb 1 to take on Emmanuel (13-7, 11-1 in CC) at home at 4 p.m.
Women’s Basketball
The UNCP Women’s basketball team (16-4, 10-2 in CC) defeated the Barton College Bulldogs (10-10, 6-6 in CC) 78-63 on Wednesday night. Hannah Russell lead the team with 16 points and 8 rebounds. Off the bench, Natalie Evington shot a perfect 5-5 from 3 for a career high 15 points in her 16 minutes of action.
Hannah Russell started the game off with a jumper from the free throw line to take a 2-0 lead early in the game. Then, Barton punched back hard scoring 7 straight to take a five point lead, which would turn out to be their largest lead of the night. Evington would check into the game down 5 and hit back to back threes to take a 1 point lead. This lead would stay for the rest of the contest.
The second quarter was more of the same for the Braves, headlined by threes from Kelci Adams and Evington, as well as 6 free throws as a team, the Braves were able to keep their lead at five.
The third quarter was when it all came together for the Braves. The Bulldogs were held to only 10 points on the quarter making only 1 of their 14 shot attempts, the rest coming from the free throw line. On the contrary, the Braves put up 27 points on 6 of 12 shooting including 3-6 from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs outscored the Braves 22-15 in the 4th quarter, but it was not enough as the Braves held on for a 78-63 victory.
The Braves will be back in action on Saturday Feb 1 at 2 p.m. to take on Emmanuel.