WILSON— Senior point guard Jaquese Smith scored a team-high 12 points for St. Andrews Presbyterian College in the Lady Knights first game of 2010 but Conference Carolinas pre-season favorite Barton College prevailed, 70-53, on Monday evening in the ‘Dog House’.



Junior 6-foot-2 center Kelsey Sill scored a career-high 19 points Monday night to propel Barton College to the 17 point victory.

The Lady Bulldogs rose to 4-4 overall and 3-0 in the league while SAPC exited at 1-5, 0-3. Barton, the defending conference champ, plays at Queens University of Charlotte on Thursday and visits Lees-McRae College on Saturday afternoon. St. Andrews travels to Coker College on Thursday for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff.

Sill swished 9-of-17 shots and snared eight rebounds, both team-highs. No other Lady Bulldog scored in double figures, but the balanced attack featured 11 players in the scoring column.

Barton fell behind 2-0 on the first play of the game as senior Kayla Hay converted on a basket for the Lady Knights, but the Bulldogs rattled off nine straight points and never trailed again. The lead grew as high as 19 points in the first half and Barton led 42-25 at intermission. SAPC got no closer than 16 points in the second half.

Barton was 29-of-85 from the floor for 34.1-percent, compared to 14-of-42 (33.3-percent) for the Knights, who committed 38 turnovers and were outrebounded 48-45 by the hosts.

Smith bucketed her team-high 12 points on 4-of-7 accuracy including a perfect 2-for-2 from three-point range. Smith added a team-high three assists, three rebounds, and one steal.

Freshman Natia Gasque had a game and season high 12 rebounds. Gasque and classmate Courtney Zona both scored seven points.