COLUMBIA - Senior guard Dearyon Estes logged 11 of his 13 points in the first half and also came up with five steals as the Fulton Hornets stretched their winning streak to five games with a 51-44 non-conference victory over Battle on Monday night.
Fulton (11-4) was in front 13-6 after one quarter and increased that advantage over the Spartans to 28-12 at halftime. The Hornets led 38-21 entering the fourth quarter.
Senior forward Deangelo Walker also supplied 12 points for Fulton and senior guard Kalin Mitchell finished with 10.
"We had a game plan and implemented it as well as we could," Hornets head coach Justin Gilmore said Tuesday afternoon. "We wanted to stop penetration and rebound, and I like to get out and run a lot (in transition), and we can do that if we want.
"We controlled the pace and did a good job of getting the shots we wanted, and forcing them to take shots they didn't want to take."
Davionte Ostrander topped Battle with 13 points.
Fulton returns home for a North Central Missouri Conference matchup against Moberly at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Roger D. Davis Gymnasium. The Spartans' Mark Anderson coached Gilmore in eighth grade at Lewis and Clark Middle School in Jefferson City.
"It will be fun," Gilmore said of the chance to match wits with Anderson. "He helped me tremendously as a player growing up, and he's helped me as a coach this year.
"He has a great coaching mind."