Cougars wrap up sweep of midweek games; stand at 10-2

Cougars wrap up sweep of midweek games; stand at 10-2

The Barton Community College men's basketball team closed out a pair of midweek wins Wednesday night at the Barton Gym in Great Bend with a 99-69 win over Hesston College. Monday night Barton beat New Creations Basketball Academy by a 72-67 margin. The wins improved the Cougars to 10-2 on the season with one more home contest left before the semester break.

Highlights
Barton rode the shoulders of freshman point guard Storm Sanders early in the contest. Sanders scored 11 of Barton's first 14 points and handed out a pair of assists on two Devonte Grant 3-pointers as Barton built a 25-19 lead. The Larks were able to cut back into the lead, getting it as low as 30-28 with 5:44 to play in the half but Barton answered with an 11-0 run and a 41-28 lead 2 minutes before the break.

This time it was Carl Wallace leading the way with the 1st 5 points of the run capped by a fast break dunk of a steal by Adam Young. Following another assist from Young to Darius Hill for a layup and 37-28 lead Colin Beatty finished out the run with a pair of fast break layups – the 1st on Young's 3rd straight assist. Barton took a 13-point cushion to half at 48-35.

The Larks were never able to get the margin under 15 the entire 2nd half and the final 10 minutes were played with the Cougar lead in the 20's. Five Cougars found double figures led by Sanders with a career-high 23 to go with 6 assists. Wallace added 21 for a career high as well. Dwayne Brunson notched his 3rd straight double-double with 10 points and a team-high 13 rebounds. It was his 6th double-double in the past 7 games and 8th overall in 11 games. Grant finished with 13 points and 5 assists while Beatty added 11. Devon Lloyd led all scorers in the contest netting 29 in a losing effort for the Larks.

Monday night Barton had to work a little harder to knock off New Creations. The Cougars scored 1st in the game and never trailed the entire 40 minutes but it wasn't easy. Barton led briefly by double digits including the final minute of the opening half and at 37-26 at halftime. The Cougars continued to hold that double digit lead for the opening 7 minutes of the 2nd half with the largest lead coming at 52-37. The Flyers got the lead under double figures with a pair of free throws at the 12.31 and whittled it down to 5 at 54-49 with 8:42 to play.

Barton pushed it back to 10 at 61-51 but a 6-0 run by the Flyers made it 61-57 with 5 minutes to play. The closest New Creations would get would be 3 in the final minute on a pair of occasions but never with the ball and a chance to tie. The Cougars hit 4-of-6 free throws in the final minute to secure the win. Sanders led the way 21 followed by Beatty with 16. Brunson had a huge game on the glass, grabbing 19 rebounds to go with 13 points.

The Cougars will close out the 1st semester at home Monday night against the Southwestern JV in a 7 pm tip at the Barton Gym.

Stats
Stats can be found was www.bartonsports.com

Next
Dec 6 – v Southwestern JV 7 pm (non conference game at the Barton Gym in Great Bend)