Barton Wins 2023 Men’s Basketball Developmental Championship
BOX SCORE | BELMONT, N.C. – Barton avenged last year’s loss with a 95-83 win over Erskine A to claim the 2023 Conference Carolinas men’s basketball developmental championship at Belmont Abbey on Monday night.
The event, which is a unique championship opportunity for developmental teams within Conference Carolinas, consisted of a preliminary round at King and Barton on Feb. 6 with the winners of each preliminary round playing in the championship at Belmont Abbey.
Barton defeated Belmont Abbey B, 88-55, Chowan, 84-60, and Mount Olive, 85-80 to reach the title game while Erskine A defeated Converse, 79-44, and Emmanuel, 76-55, to reach the championship.
Barton scored first but the Flying Fleet answered with nine straight for the early lead. The Bulldogs answered and used a 12-2 run of their own to take a 26-14 lead with 9:13 to play in the first half. Erskine clawed back to within three points before the Bulldogs pushed the lead to four, 47-43, at the half. It was a back-and-forth second half that saw Erskine lead by as many as nine points,71-62, with 9:47 to play, however, Barton closed the game on a 33-12 run for the 95-83 win.
Isaiah Williams led Barton with 21 points and added five rebounds while Jovantae Jones added 19 points and seven rebounds to go with three steals. Barton had five players score in double figures in the win. The Bulldogs led for nearly 60 percent of the contest and finished 34-for-74 (45.9%) from the floor, 6-for-22 (27.3%) from the arc and 21-for-37 (56.8%) at the line. The Bulldogs tallied 46 rebounds and 15 steals in the win.
Tyus Brooks led all scorers with 24 points for Erskine and he added six rebounds, one block and one steal. Three others scored in double figures for the Flying Fleet who finished the game 31-for-64 (48.4%) from the field and 8-for-20 (40%) from the 3-point arc with 39 rebounds and six blocked shots.
The Bulldogs’ Jones was named tournament Most Valuable Player.
More information can be found on the tournament webpage here.
Earlier this academic year Conference Carolinas announced that a developmental championship will be held in men’s and women’s soccer, men’s basketball and baseball. The developmental teams will be composed of student-athletes that have either not competed at the varsity level in 2022-23 or have competed sparingly at the varsity level by the time of the championship.