Mount Olive, North Carolina - The University of Mount Olive women's basketball team were defeated by their rival Barton College 83-56 in Conference Carolinas action Wednesday evening. UMO falls to 15-6 overall and 12-5 in conference, while Barton improves to 16-5, 13-3.

INSIDE THE SCORE
Mount Olive scored the first points of the quarter and held the lead until 5:20 when Barton jumped ahead 10-9. UMO responded with two free throws and a jump shot, crawling their way back up with a one-point lead 13-12 at the end of the first quarter. 

In the second quarter, the Trojans scored first on a Kennedi Jones jump shot making the score 15-12. The Trojans held the lead until 8:38 left in the second quarter when Barton hit a three-pointer to tie the score 15-15. The Trojans and Barton traded off scoring until Barton jumped ahead 27-24 with 1:52. Barton continued to finish off the quarter strong and went into the half leading the Trojans 35-27.

The third quarter was all Barton as they continued to show strong shooting and good defense to limit the Trojans scoring. Barton closed the quarter with a 16 point lead, 56-40.

In the final quarter, both sides came out cold, only pushing the score to 63-42 Bulldogs with 6:50 left to play. Barton started to heat up and began pulling farther away from the Trojans and increased their lead to 21 points with 3:30 left in the game. The Trojans fought hard to close the gap but Barton won the game 83-56.

MOUNT OLIVE LEADERS
The Trojans were led by Jada Bacchus with 14 points. Azariah Fields also had a double-digit scoring performance with 10 points.

BARTON LEADERS
The Bulldogs were led by Shanika Peterkin with 20 points. 

KEY MOMENT
The key moment of the game came in the second half of the game when Barton went on a 21-13 run throughout the second quarter.

UP NEXT
Mount Olive will be back out on the court Saturday, February 8th facing King University at 2 p.m.