Cougars knock off No. 18 Northeastern to move to 9-2

Cougars knock off No. 18 Northeastern to move to 9-2
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team didn't miss out on the upset of a ranked team this time around, knocking off No. 18 ranked Northeastern (Colo) Junior College on the final day of the Cougar Booster Club Thanksgiving Classic at the Barton County Gym Sautrday. The Cougars, who just missed an upset of No. 4 Coffeyville last weekend, defeated the Plainsmen, 80-64, to finish the Classic with a 2-0 mark. The Cougars beat Brown Mackie 76-73 the previous night and are now 9-2 on the season. Barton will travel to the Jayhawk ShootOut in Coffeyville next weekend. Northeastern fell to 9-2 with the loss.

Highlights
Barton jumped to a 15-point halftime lead on the strength of 16 points from Chris Berry. The Cougars built the 42-27 lead by hitting 18-of-32 shots from the floor. Barton never did let up on the gas on the way to the 16-point win. Northeastern did make one run in the 2nd half, cutting the Barton lead to 56-50 with 9 minutes to play, but Barton responded. After the Plainsmen closed the gap to 6, Barton followed with an 16-2 run to take it's biggest lead of the game at 72-52 with 3 minutes to play.

The Cougars put 4 players in double figures during the win, paced by Berry with 22 points. He also added 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Reggie Love scored 16 and led Barton with 10 rebounds. Dominique White scored 15 with Shaun James adding 11. White was 9-of-10 at the free throw line for the Cougasr.

The Cougars had to pull themselves from a big deficit Friday night, rallying from 17 points down in the first half to earn the win over the defending NJCAA Division II champions. Brown Mackie jumped to an early 7-0 lead and did not trail until a Reggie Love layup with 10 minutes left in the game to give Barton a 54-53 lead. Love would score 19 points in the 2nd half, including 12 straight for Barton as the Cougars took a 62-59 lead.

The lead changed hands 9 times in the final 10 minutes, the final time on a Chris Berry basket with 1:09 left for a 74-73. Brown Mackie had chances in the final seconds to tie the game, but came up short. Love ended the night with 19 points, followed by Berry with 18. Shaun James added 11 rebounds and Dominique White handed out 7 assists.

Stats
Full stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Fri., Dec. 2 – v Neosho County, 1 pm (Jayhawk ShootOut in Coffeyville)
Sat., Dec. 3 – v Allen County, 3 pm (Jayhawk ShootOut in Coffeyville)

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Check out Barton County Basketball Online at www.bartonccc.edu/sports