FLORENCE, SC – Junior forward Jordyn Surratt led Francis Marion University with 21 points, connecting on 8-of-13 from the floor, but the Patriots suffered a last-minute 96-90 loss to Barton College on Wednesday (Feb. 5) night in Conference Carolinas men's play.
 
The Patriots (8-14, 6-8) will host Lees-McRae College on Saturday (Feb. 8) at 4 p.m.
 
Surratt also snared a team-high eight rebounds and dealt out four assists. Besides Surratt, four other Patriots recorded double figures: freshman forward Alex Atkinson 16, junior forward Latavian Lawrence 15, junior guard Jordan Simpson 15, and senior forward Ibrahim Wattara 14.
 
Guard Shawn Nelson paced Barton (12-10, 8-6) with 23 points as he shot 8-of-16 from the field,  while Marko Krtinic scored 17 points and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.
 
The Bulldogs jumped to an early lead in the opening minutes, outscoring the Patriots 16-7. By the 12:54 mark, Barton had opened its lead to 11 points at 22-11, before buckets from Simpson and freshman guard Ramez Zayed cut the lead to eight points at 23-15.
 
Over the next five minutes, Barton extended its advantage with a 6-0 run and kept Francis Marion trailing 33-19. The Bulldogs then cruised to a halftime advantage of 46-36.
 
Although the Bulldogs led by eight (46-38) shortly after the start of the second half, FMU fought back to trail 48-43. With a burst from Lawrence, the 6-5 forward sank a shot from distance to cut the deficit to 52-46.
 
An 8-0 spurt from Barton kept the Bulldogs in front by a margin of 15 (63-48) with 15:34 left. A tip-in by Atkinson ignited an eleven-point run to deadlock the game at 65-65, with Simpson finishing the run with a driving lay-in.
 
After a total of 16 lead exchanges, the last 11 minutes became a one-possession game.  FMU led 87-85 after a pull-up jumper by Lawrence, and later the Patriots 90-87 after Lawrence drained a fast-break three-pointer with 1:28 remaining.
 
However, Barton scored the game's final seven points as FMU missed its final four shots.