RALEIGH, N.C. – Karron Johnson provided a much-needed spark off the bench to lift Shaw to a stunning 91-86 upset over No. 11 Barton College on Monday night in their home opener at C.C. Spaulding Gymnasium.

Johnson scored 27 points (on 11 for 11 shooting from the floor) and also snagged 12 rebounds to lead the Bears as they handed Barton their first loss of the season.

Monday's win was the 15th consecutive win on their home court, a streak that dates back to January of 2011. The win improves the Bears to 4-2 on the season and drops the Bulldogs to 7-1.

When Johnson entered the game for the first time at the 13:37 mark of the first half, the Bears trailed 19-10. Sixteen seconds after checking into the contest, Johnson scored his first two points of the game on a layup, which came off a pass from Latrail McCoy.

"Karron is a pro," said Shaw head coach Cleo Hill, Jr. "He's going to be playing somewhere very special next year. He did what he is supposed to do. He dominated on the offensive end. He dominated on the defensive end. He even dominated on the leadership end, too. He did what a professional is supposed to do and he did a great job tonight."

After Johnson came into the game, the momentum of the game started shifting towards the Bears as they outscored the Bulldogs 32-25 in the final 13 minutes of the half, with Johnson scoring 14 of his points in the first half.

"Coach told me that he wanted me to find another way to impact the game," said Johnson. "He basically said to find a way to impact the game other than scoring whether it was by rebounding, finding other teammates and getting them easy buckets. I feel like I did that tonight. I found other ways to assist other players rather than score a lot of points. When I did that and got the rest of my teammates going, it only opened me up and helped me get some good looks at the basket."

Trailing 44-42 at halftime, the Bears eventually evened things up thanks to a layup from Keith Mitchell. The Bulldogs responded by going on a 6-0 run and building a 50-44 cushion with 17:30 remaining in the game.

A pair of free throws by McCoy and a layup by Mohammed Abdur-Rahim cut the Bears deficit to two at 50-48 with 17:02 left. The Bulldogs had an answer, however, as Jon Hart's jumper gave them a 52-48 advantage.

McCoy drained a jumper to get Shaw back within two but the Bulldogs answered yet again when Gerald Boston scored on a layup to make it 54-50. Boston scored on another layup to make it 56-50 with 16:04 remaining in the game.

At the 14:30 mark, the Bulldogs held an eight-point lead at 60-52 thanks to a dunk from Chris Flemmings.

With 12:21 remaining in the game, Barton built another eight point lead at 66-58 after Aaron Brown drained a 3-pointer.

The crowd, which was loud all night long, cheered even louder when Johnson cut it to six on an alley-oop pass from Curtis Hines, which made it 66-60 with 12 minutes to go. After a quick Barton score, Johnson came down on the other end and was the recipient of a Derrick Hunter pass for the dunk, making it 68-62 with 11:05 left.

After a series of misses and miscues from both teams, McCoy cut the Bears deficit to four after hitting a jumper with 10:18 left. On the other end, Barton's Brian McNair hit a jumper of his own to put the Bulldogs back up by six.

With 9:05 left in the game, McCoy drained a 3-pointer from the left corner, which came off a Johnson pass, to cut the deficit to three at 70-67. After a missed shot by Barton, Shaw's Albert Smith found Curtis Hines wide open for a 3-pointer of his own to tie the game at 70 with 8:38 remaining.

The Bears took the lead at the 7:40 mark when Hunter broke free on a layup. With 6:26 left, Hunter was the recipient of a cross court pass from Johnson as he slammed it down to give the Bears a 74-70 cushion.

After losing their lead, the Bulldogs refused to go away as they tied things up twice more, the last one coming with 3:31 remaining in the contest. Aaron Brown's free throw knotted things up at 79.

Shaw took the lead for good following a pair of free throws from Hunter. With 2:19 to go, Johnson scored on a layup to put the Bears up 83-79. He put Shaw up by six with another slam dunk with 2:01 left, giving the Bears a comfortable 85-79 lead.

With 1:10 remaining, the Bulldogs got back to within two (86-84) but they could get no closer as the Bears closed the game on a 5-2 run to take the win.

McCoy chimed in with 16 points and Hines added 15 for the Bears. Abdur-Rahim rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Bears, contributing with 10.

As a team, the Bears shot a season-best 62 percent from the field offensively. On the defensive end, they limited the Bulldogs to just 45 percent shooting.

"We did a good job executing," said Hill. "Whatever the play called for and whatever the play was designed to do, that's what we did. We talked about execution all week last week. Partly because we didn't execute down the stretch in Kentucky in the championship game of our tournament last week and the first time we played Barton, we did a poor job executing. That was the focus tonight. We did a good job getting the ball to the people where we wanted to get it at."

The crowd of 976 was loud all night long and Johnson credits the Shaw faithful for helping the Bears get back into the contest.

"It's all about the crowd," said Johnson. "The crowd is what gave us the energy here tonight. We lost one over at their house earlier this year, so we wanted to get that one back here tonight. This was a big win for us and our fans really gave us that energy that we needed."

Shaw returns to action on December 14 when they travel to the University of Tampa. 

article by Ryan Sarda