Cougars pick up hard fought win over Colby

Cougars pick up hard fought win over Colby
The Barton Community College men's basketball team had to battle its way to a 90-80 win over Colby Wednesday night at the Barton Gym in Great Bend. The Cougars fell behind early then could not put away the 4-win Trojans until the final stages. The win comes off Barton's only Jayhawk West loss and keeps the Cougars alone on top of the standings. Barton is now 6-1 in the West and 19-2 overall. Colby falls to 2-6 and 4-18. Barton will wrap up its 1st swing through the West with a trip to Pratt Saturday.

Highlights
As has been commonplace far too often this season, the Cougars fell behind right away in the contest. After Barton scored on an alley-oop to Nyika Williams off the opening tip, Colby scored the game's 11 points. The Trojans held their lead much of the 1st half, giving it up only briefly at the midway point of the half. Colby still led 34-28 with 4 minutes left in the half but Barton closed on a big run. The Cougars scored 8 straight points to take a 36-34 lead then after Colby tied the game the Cougars scored the final 6 of the half to cap a 14-2 run and take a 42-36 lead to halftime.

Barton immediately pushed the lead to double figures to start the 2nd half but Colby wouldn't go away. Colby cut it to 6 points before Barton got it back to 14 points with 10 minutes to play. Colby whittled the lead down to 7 points with 5:30 to play but Barton again stretched it out to 13 with 3 minutes left and the Trojans never got it below 10 the rest of the way.

Williams had a big night for the Cougars with the sophomore scoring a career-high 27 points on 12-of-14 shooting. He added 11 rebounds for his 4th double-double this year and the 1st of the conference season. Williams also had 5 blocks in the win. Cornelius Brown and Corey Bingham added 14 each off the bench. The Cougar bench outscored the Colby bench 33-2. Bingham also had 10 boards for his 2nd double-double this year – the 1st with rebounds. The other came with 10 assists. Marcus Butler added 10 boards as well as Barton won the rebound battle 50-31. Three Trojans – Arius Stephenson (26), Shamar Acuay (23), and Erick Peguero (21) – combined to score 70 of the team's 80 points.

Barton will travel to Pratt to conclude the 1st time through the West where the Cougars will have played 5 of their 8 games on the road, leaving Barton with just 3 road tilts after Saturday's battle with the Beavers. The Cougars have not had much success in Pratt recently, losing the last 2 years at Lesh Arena. Pratt is currently 3-4 in the West and 13-8 overall.

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

Next
Jan 31 – at Pratt 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at Lesh Arena in Pratt)

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