The Barton Community College men's basketball team's eleven point bench production provided the difference Friday afternoon in Council Bluffs, Iowa, as the Cougars registered an 87-81 win over region foe Cloud County Community College in the Holiday Inn/Hampton Inn Reiver Classic.

The third straight victory improves Barton to 7-1 on the season in dropping Cloud County to 4-2. The Cougars return to the Reiver Arena on Saturday in taking on host Iowa Western Community College (4-5) in a 7:00 p.m. tip.

Both teams shot lights out in the first half with the T-birds shooting 53.3% while the Cougars shot 69.2% but trailed by two at the halftime break 43-41.

Forcing eleven second half turnovers for a fifteen point overall differential in points generated, Barton seized the lead right out the locker room scoring six straight.

Cloud County hung around in managing to tie the contest with eleven minutes to play before Barton racked up eight straight in putting the T-birds on catch up mode the rest of the game.

Martin Vogts, who led the Cougars' bench spark with a season high twenty points, canned two of his three deep shots in the stretch with Anthony Atkinson-Enneking mixing in two of his eleven points in helping Barton a 68-60 score with 8:28 on the clock.

The T-birds drew to within five with 1:39 left and within four in the final nine seconds but the free throw shooting of Diovonte Caldwell and Jaheim Holden to sink a combine 6-of-8 charity tosses held off the charge.

Holden led all scorers with twenty-two points, just ahead of Vogts' twenty, with Mavrick Gildyard's fourteen and Enneking's eleven's key contributions off the bench.

Jay Lewis scored twenty for Cloud County in being followed by a trio of eleven point producers by Chad Vincent-Simon, DJ Sims, and Dyelan Reed with Iyen Enaruna contributing ten.