Once again it took a balanced attack Wednesday evening as the Barton Community College men's basketball team rode a late second half 11-0 run in holding off Neosho County Community College 83-76.
The Cougars, receiving votes in the latest national poll, leap into the holiday break on a three game winning streak improving to 3-1 in league play and 11-2 on the season while the Panthers slide to 2-2 in the Jayhawk East and fall below .500 for the year at 6-7. Barton will have the Christmas break off from competition before returning to the court on January 4 in traveling to the Power Plant for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off at Butler Community College.
Barton rode a poised scoring attack through the opening eleven minutes as seven different Cougars dotted the scoring column giving Barton their largest lead of the frame at nine. The margin would disperse over the next six minutes as the Panthers rallied to take their first and lone lead of the evening at 27-26 with 5:26 to play in the half. An Anthony Atkinson-Enneking layup just eleven ticks later delivered the Cougars back into the driver's seat generating an 8-3 run over the final four minutes galloping Barton into the locker room on top 36-32.
Trading baskets for the opening eleven minutes of the second half that never saw the margin grow more than six points, Barton clung to a one-point advantage at the media timeout, 57-56. A quick thirty-one seconds later Barton caught fire as freshman Desean Munson converted an old fashion three-point play as the Cougars strung eleven straight growing its largest lead of the contest to twelve at 70-58 with six minutes to play.
The Panthers would trim the deficit to five with four minutes to play but Jaheim Holden was clutch down the stretch converting five-of-six from the charity stripe over the final two minutes sealing the contest.
Five Cougars finished in double-digits as Barton put all eight who saw court time in the scoring column. Holden led the charge with seventeen converting 3-of-4 behind the arc followed by Justin Harmon's fifteen points. A trio of Cougars followed as Munson and Martin Vogts contributed eleven each with Atkinson-Enneking rounding out the Barton double-figure scoring with ten. Holden dished out a game high six assists. Atkinson-Enneking led Barton with seven boards despite the club being outrebounded by fifteen.
Jonathan Breeland Jr. led all scorers with 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field to go along with his game high eight rebounds. James Taylor tallied fourteen while Jae-Min Yang finished just shy of a perfect night from the floor going 6-of-7 adding to contribute twelve points.