Barnes' Career Night Lifts Embry-Riddle Over Eckerd

Box Score ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - No matter what the question was tonight in the McArthur Center, Embry-Riddle's Dalton Barnes seemed to have the answer.

The senior guard scored a career-high 35 points to lead the Eagles past the Eckerd men's basketball squad, 93-80, in a non-conference contest.

"They were clearly the better team tonight," said Eckerd head coach Tom Ryan. "We could not stop them.  We scored 80 points and that should be enough for us to win.  Barnes created everything for them.  They moved the ball great and made a lot of open shots.  It was a great team effort behind a great guard."

Embry-Riddle (11-7) nearly led from wire-to-wire, never trailing in the game and only seeing the score tied twice early in the contest.

Barnes scored nine straight points to start an early 15-3 run as ERAU built a 12-point lead at the 11:30 mark of the first half.

The Eagles led extended to as many as 13 before Eckerd (14-5) cut it to six at the half at 45-39.  The Tritons had a chance to get even closer, but Kevin Walsh's 3-point attempt rattled out as time expired.

Walsh canned an early 3-pointer in the second half, however, to make it a four-point game, and the Embry-Riddle lead fluctuated between four and eight points over the next few minutes before another Eagle run widened the gap significantly.

Eckerd went cold from the floor and ERAU took advantage with a 16-2 run, extending its lead to 18 points with just under 12:00 to play.

Another Walsh 3-pointer and a Trevon Young traditional 3-point play broke the run as the Tritons quickly trimmed the deficit down to eight points (72-64) three minutes later.

However, that would be as close as EC would get to the lead.  Embry-Riddle soon pushed its advantage back to 16 points and, despite another rally that saw Eckerd close the gap to nine with just over a minute to play, never looked to be in danger for the rest of the game. 

The 93 points scored by Embry-Riddle was the most allowed by Eckerd in regulation this season.

Despite the loss, Eckerd had big games from Drushaun McLaurn (23 points) and Obi Kyei (16 points, 16 rebounds).  Walsh also added 16 points while Young tallied 14.

The road gets no easier for the Tritons as they travel to face SSC leader No. 10 Barry on Saturday at 4:00 PM.