Bryan Ayala had ice in his veins when he needed it Saturday night, hitting a shot at the buzzer to give N.C. Central a huge victory. 

Ayala dribbled the length of the floor and fired up a straight-on 3-pointer as time expired, and after the ball bounced around the rim and finally dropped in, the Eagles had a 67-65 win over Barton in the final round of the BC Powder Classic at McLendon-McDougald Gym. 

The win gave the Eagles the de facto championship, since they were the only team to get two wins in the two-day event. 

NCCU, which went 10-18 last season, opened the season with back-to-back wins for the first time since 1997. 

"That was a huge win for us," NCCU coach Henry Dickerson said. "[The Bulldogs] aren't ranked where they are for nothing. We got a good lead, and then they fought back. 

"Good teams can keep leads, but good teams know how to come back, too. I didn't call timeout on that last play because that's what everybody in the gym was expecting. Everybody was just standing around." 

Ayala, the MVP of the event, finished with 16 points one day after a career-high 33 in the opening-game win over Columbus State. NCCU's Drew Johnson also made the all-classic team with a 13-point performance, while Jason Hervey dropped in 12 and Steve Randolph 10 for the Eagles. 

"I've never really hit one like that," Ayala said. "I didn't even know it was a 3-pointer. I just saw zero and something that wasn't zero on the clock so I knew I had to shoot. 

"I know it hit the backboard, and then it must have bounced four or five times. I didn't know it was good until I turned back around." 

Barton (2-1), the reigning NCAA Division II East Regional champion that was preseason No. 2 nationally by Street Smith, got 16 points from Anthony Atkinson and 12 from Alejo Barovero as both were named to the all-classic team. Brian Leggett added 10 points and 12 rebounds for Barton. 

"This event had a great field," Barton coach Ron Lievense said. "And we lost to a great basketball team that wouldn't quit. [Ayala] hit a nice shot and beat us." 

The Eagles shot 41.5 percent from the floor to 38.2 for Barton, and won the rebounding battle 37-34. Barton was just 4-for-21 from 3-point range. 

NCCU was up 31-30 at halftime, taking the lead for the third time on a Tory Harper jumper from the stripe 33 seconds before the break. 

Sparked by six points from Billy Wilson and four from Hervey, the Eagles took a 42-35 lead with 14:50 left. They stretched it to 45-36 with 13:59 left on a Johnson layup, and were still up 56-47 on a pair of Hervey free throws at 9:00 before the Bulldogs went on a tear. 

"We just kept playing tough," said Hervey, who sat out all of last season with a knee injury. "I think we're playing together really well. And B.A. (Ayala) doesn't surprise me. I saw how good he was when he came back from the summer." 

There were three lead changes before Barovero's layup at 2:01 put the visitors up 63-60. But Ayala hit a pair of free throws at 1:46 to set up a dramatic final sequence. 

After Dickerson used a double timeout with :21 left, Johnson hit a hard-driving layup on the left side to give the Eagles the lead at the 16.2 mark. Atkinson hit a 10-footer from the left side with 5.1 to go before Dickerson instructed Ayala to play without calling timeout. 

"We talked a lot about setting up the play I scored on," Johnson said. "B.A. just made a great play there at the end." 

Explained Ayala, "Atkinson was guarding me, and I had gone right every time. This time I decided to go left instead." 

In Saturday's opener, Nicholas King had 19 points and 12 rebounds to earn the fifth spot on the all-classic team, while Claude Neeley added 19 points as St. Augustine's beat Columbus State 71-50. St. Augustine's (1-1) rolled to an easy win in a game that was never close after the Falcons led 40-30 at halftime. 

Antonio Fitzgerald added 18 points for the Falcons, who won every phase of the game. St. Aug's shot 38.5 percent from the floor to 26.6 for Columbus State, which was 6-of-38 from outside the 

CSU, 0-2 under first-year head coach Doug Branson, got 20 points and 20 rebounds from Alton Hart.