Barton basketball team wins National Championship!

March 25, 2007

Miracle finish upends top-ranked, undefeated Winona State.

SPRINGFIELD , MA – David slew Goliath!  And now, EVERYONE believes!

The Barton College men's basketball team never lost faith Saturday afternoon and mounted a miraculous, improbable comeback from seven points behind in the final 40 seconds to claim the NCAA D-II National Championship with one of the most thrilling finishes in history!

Senior All-America point guard Anthony Atkinson scored the Bulldogs' final 10 points as Barton roared back to claim a 77-75 victory over top-ranked Winona State.

In Hoosiers-like fashion, Barton, a school with less than 1,000 students, took down teams with 23,000 (Grand Valley State, MI), 17, 000 (Cal State San Bernardino) and 8,000 students (Winona State) during the Elite Eight to claim the school's first NCAA championship in any sport.

Barton, ranked 15 th nationally, finished the season with a school-best 31-5 record while winning its last 21 games (another school record). Winona State wound up 35-1.

Down 74-67 to Winona State , the defending national champs and winners of 57 straight games, the Bulldogs did not panic, especially Atkinson.

While Winona State thought Barton's slingshot may have been empty, the Bulldogs — just like they have all year — believed, and it paid off again.

“During a timeout,” Atkinson said, “we just came over and the first thing we said was ‘stay calm, we've been in this situation before,' Atkinson recalled. “Everybody kept their heads. They (Warriors) were over there celebrating while we were contemplating our next move…We just got a basket, another basket, then another basket and the game was over.”

Atkinson made a layup at :39 and quickly fouled Zach Malvik, who made 1-of-2 free throws at :34. On the ensuing possession, Atkinson worked his way into the lane on the left side and swished a 12-foot jumper to make it 74-71 with 25 seconds remaining. On the inbounds play, Barton sophomore guard Errol Frails jumped in front All-American Jonte Flowers for the steal along the baseline and flipped the ball under the basket to Atkinson, who drove to the hoop from the left side, hung in the air and lofted a shot into the basket over two defenders as he was fouled.

With a chance to tie the score at 74 with 23 seconds showing, Atkinson misfired, then fouled Flowers, who missed the first free throw and made the second for a 75-73 Winona State lead at :19. Atkinson again found a lane and soared under the basket for an acrobatic reverse layup in traffic at :11. The Warriors inbounded the ball to Malvik, who dribbled past two defenders, but had the ball stolen from a charging Bobby Buffaloe from behind. Buffaloe tossed the ball to Atkinson — who was heading the other way — with only 2.1 seconds left. With the fans in disbelief, Atkinson glanced at the clock and hustled to the hoop, laying in the National Championship-winning basket as time expired.

“When Bobby tipped the ball away and passed it to me,” Atkinson said, “I had the angle on the clock and saw I had 2.1 seconds. The other night I made it the length of the court in 3.5 seconds. This time, I was already at half-court, so I knew I could make it.”

The media in the press room roared with laughter.

“Nothing was going to stop me from getting to the basket: nothing,” he said.

Atkinson, the Elite Eight MVP, ran around the basketball standard in the MassMutual Center after hitting the game-winner, then, with his teammates in hot pursuit, ran the length of the court with his hands over his head in disbelief.

“For me, you can't find a better ending,” 11 th -year Barton head coach Ron Lievense said. “How does it get any better than this? I don't know how it possibly could. The way the game was won, who the game was against, I don't see how any ending could be better.”

“It's kind of tough to swallow,” said Winona guard Quincy Henderson, who scored 19 points on 5-of-7 shooting from 3-point range. “And I'm still kind of wondering what happened. It all happened so fast. The last 30 seconds, it seemed like blew by, and I'm not sure what happened at this point.”

“Ant” and his army of believers is what happened.

Atkinson put together an Elite Eight performance like no one had ever seen, winning all three games on the final possession while scoring 32, 19 and 29 points. He scored the final 10 points of the championship game in just 39 seconds. He averaged a phenomenal 26.7 points on 58.4-percent shooting, four assists and 2.7 steals. Amazingly, he played every minute of all three Elite Eight games and had just 2.6 turnovers per outing.

In two preseason D-II polls, Winona State was ranked No. 1 and Barton was No. 2. The Bulldogs spent the whole year hoping to get back to the Elite Eight, where they would get another shot at the Warriors, who had ended their season, 86-78 in OT, in the 2006 National Quarterfinals.

Winona State was red-hot in the first half, swishing 62.1 percent of its shots en route to a 41-31 lead at intermission, but the Bulldogs didn't back down, reeling off nine straight points to start the second half for a 41-40 deficit at 17:57.

The Warriors held the Bulldogs off and pushed their lead to 10 points at 66-56 with 8:56 showing on a dunk by National Player of the Year John Smith, the 6-8 center who was hampered by foul problems much of the game.

Barton pulled within 72-67 at 4:37 on a dunk by high-flying freshman L.J. Dunn. Neither team scored for nearly four minutes until Malvik made two free throws at :45, setting the stage for the Bulldogs' heroics.

“Winona State will probably go down as one the premier teams in the history of the game,” Lievense said. “They are a team that has fought through to win so many great victories. Who would have thought that would happen to Winona State?”

“That” was the rally for the ages…and an ending to a game that will go down as one of the most thrilling of all time.

Winona State shot the second-best percentage from the floor in championship history (30-of-51 for 58.8 percent), while Barton canned 32-of-67 for 47.8 percent. Winona State claimed a 29-25 edge in rebounding, but the Bulldogs' pressure defense forced the Warriors into 24 turnovers, compared to 15 for Barton.

Malvik scored 26 points, Flowers notched 13 points, 12 boards and Smith added 10 points.

Senior Mark Friscone was key for the Bulldogs with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting and freshman L.J. Dunn added 10 points and six rebounds. Junior Brian Leggett had eight points and 10 rebounds and senior Alejo Barovero swished nine points.

Flowers, Smith, Malvik and Central Missouri's Zack Wright joined Atkinson on the All-Tournament team.

Atkinson's teammates and coach raved about his tournament heroics.

“Personally, I don't think he's human,” Dunn said of Atkinson.

“Anthony's the best point guard I've ever played with in my life, possibly the best player,” said the 6-5 Friscone, who played AAU basketball with Lebron James.

“It's not what he has done for Barton College basketball,” Lievense said. “It's what he has done for Barton College. Ant's one of the finest young men I have ever coached, and one of the most humble. What he has meant as a person first is more important than what he has meant to us as a player. To put that in perspective, he just won the National Championship for us, and he still means more to us a person.”

“Little Ant,” whose dad is a preacher, was certainly at the forefront this week as he and his Barton College teammates marched through March Madness to win the biggest prize of all.

Believe it!

Barton is the National Champion!

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