Hinton’s Big Night Leads Shaw to Overtime Victory Over No. 14 Barton
WILSON, N.C. – The nation’s leading scorer lived up to the hype as junior guard Amir Hinton (Philadelphia, PA) of the Shaw University men’s basketball team recorded a new career-high of 49 points in the Bears 95-90 overtime victory over the No. 14th nationally ranked Barton College Bulldogs squad Tuesday night at the Wilson Gymnasium. The Bears snapped the Bulldogs’ six-game win-streak to improve to 5-2 on the year while BC slides to 6-1 overall.
Hinton who set a program record tonight led all scorers with the 49-point performance on 19-of-32 shooting from floor and 10-of-11 free throws. He finished with seven rebounds, four assists and one steal while freshman Geremy Taylor (Pompano Beach, FL) netted a career-high 12 points, five assists and four rebounds and freshman Nakwan Kitchen (Orangeburg, SC) added his first career double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for Shaw.
Shaw rallied from a 14-point deficit at the 13:55 mark of the second half, beginning with a 14-2 run capped off by a layup from junior guard Davon Dillard (Gary, IN) to pull the Bears within five (60-55). The Bulldogs built its lead back up to eight points after a layup from Michael Boykin but the Bears continued to chop at the deficit down the stretch.
In the last 4:25 of regulation, Hinton scored the Bears last 11 points, including a jumper with 48 seconds on the clock that would eventually send the game into overtime as BC missed two free throws late.
Shaw scored the first four buckets in overtime to take an 84-80 lead with 2:10 left. A made free-throw from Blake Burdack, followed by a 3-pointer from Matt Woods tied the game at 84-all but Hinton quickly silenced the crowd with a layup in between defenders in which he would be fouled and sent to the line to complete the 3-point play to push the Bears ahead (87-84) with 1:09 left to play.
In addition to great defense by Shaw, the difference maker proved to be free-throws as the Bears connected eight-straight freebies to outscore the Bulldogs 8-2 to seal the triumph.
Shaw finished the contest shooting 50.6-percent from the field and 82.4-percent from the free throw line while holding the No. 14 ranked team in the nation to 47.8-percent shooting and 52.6-percent from the foul line. The Bears also outrebounded its opponent 42-38 on the glass.
Bobby Stenbord led the efforts for BC with 32 points and eight rebounds while Zach Grant charted 15 points and seven boards and Michael Boykin finished with 10 points.
Shaw will resume action and conference play on Thursday, Dec. 13 at Elizabeth City State at 7:30 p.m.