Barton men rally for 84-77 overtime victory over Coffeyville

For thirty-three minutes Wednesday night at the Barton Gym, the Barton Community College men's basketball team appeared headed for a loss against Coffeyville Community College before a pair of three-pointers sent the game to overtime where the Cougars doubled up the Ravens for the 84-77 win.   Victory No. 260 in the Craig Fletchall regime, the third straight win since the Christmas break improves the Cougars to 9-3 in Jayhawk play and 13-3 overall while Coffeyville's second straight loss drops the Ravens to 7-5 and 11-5 on the season.   Barton will next travel to Chanute for a 4:00 p.m. tip off at Neosho County Community College.

Playing perhaps its worst twenty minutes of the season, Barton also witnessed the Ravens burying 7-of-16 from long range digging the Cougars a twelve point hole before Anthony Smith and Ezekiel Charles late buckets cut the deficit to 34-26 before halftime.

Coffeyville expanded the lead out to ten getting the opening second half bucket but the Cougars, behind Smith's five straight, climbed back in it with a 7-0 run making it 36-33.  The Ravens controlled the ensuing three minutes expanding the lead back out to ten before the Cougars began chipping away at the deficit to a five point hole before momentum started to sway with eight minutes remaining.

Beginning with a pair of free throws and drive to the hole from Malik Rhodes, Barton would go on an 11-2 run in two minutes getting a John Barbee trey, another two from Rhodes and a steal and alley-oop dish to Malik Toppin capping the stretch giving the Cougars a 60-56 lead with 5:44 to play.

Dropping two of just three made three pointers in the second half, Coffeyville had another surge in them blowing past the Cougars for a 69-64 lead with just 2:06 on the clock.  Striking for a career high twenty points in the game, freshman Noah Webster put an end to the Ravens 8-0 run fourteen seconds later burying his second of four long balls on the night.  Following a Trey Kalina 1-of-2 trip to the line pushing the lead back to three, neither team converted on their ensuing possession leaving open opportunities.  

With Barton getting a second possession for the tie, Barbee found himself alone at the top of the key stepping up to drain his second trey of the night setting off a frenzy from the Cougar faithful with 28.9 ticks on the clock.  The Ravens worked the clock under ten seconds to the sound of a raucous Barton crowd before getting off an off-balance shot leaving a flurry of tipped ball action around the rim with Barbee finally coming down with the defensive rebound to force the extra frame.

The Cougars gained the early edge with Smith stepping in for a steal leading to a Rhodes hoop-n-harm but it was a thirty-four second stretch one minute later that helped give Barton the final momentum it would need.   Following the Ravens tying it up at 73, Webster canned consecutive long balls on either side of a Coffeyville bucket surging the Cougars ahead for good at 79-75 with 2:26 remaining.  It would be the last field goal for either team as the Ravens went cold from the field and Barton iced the game away in the final 1:16 draining 5-of-6 from the charity stripe.

Two Cougars with career highs led Barton in scoring as Smith dropped twenty-four and Webster scoring twenty.  Smith, who also hauled down a career high fifteen rebounds, recorded his third straight and fifth double-double of the season while Webster's career night marked the third straight game of reaching double figures.  Rhodes added fifteen points with a team high four steals while Toppin helped the Cougars come out on the top side of 41-39 rebound edge grabbing thirteen boards to go along with six points and a game high four blocks.  Barbee, who knocked down two of his four long ball attempts sparking the Cougars in the second half, led the distribution with four assists.

Three Ravens also reached double figures with Malik Keith and Jordan Taylor each scoring eighteen while Travis Washington added thirteen.  Keith dished out a team high four assists, Taylor recorded four steals, and Greg Poleon led a balanced rebounding with eight.