Despite scoring a season low thirty-one points in the first half, the Barton Community College men's basketball team surged further ahead behind a pair of second frame spurts Wednesday evening to hold off Cloud County Community College 74-67 at the Barton Gym.
The 24th ranked Cougars improve to a Jayhawk West best 5-1 and 13-2 on the season while the T-Birds fall to 2-5 in the Jayhawk East and slip to .500 on the season at 8-8.
Barton will put its' five game winning streak on the line Saturday in Iola, Kansas, in a 4:00 p.m. Top-25 matchup against 22nd ranked Allen County Community College.
Neither team found much separation through the opening twenty minutes as the margin never jumped past three in a seesaw nine lead changes and eight ties.
Barton gained some momentum a minute into the second half jumping out to a 38-31 lead following a Martin Vogts trifecta and pair of layups from Justin Harmon and Desean Munson capping a 7-2 run. Following a 6-0 Cloud County answer just two minutes later that trimmed the margin back to one at 40-39, the Cougars responded scoring five of the next six points sparked by Mavrick Gildyard's old fashion three point play.
The Cougars would put to rest any glimpse of a T-Bird rally with 8:49 remaining growing its' lead to double digits as Harmon posted five of his eleven second half points to lead another mini 9-3 proving to be a final difference maker.
Two Cougars finished in double-digits as Harmon scored a team high twenty on 7-of-12 shooting from the field followed by Vogts eighteen points. Holden dished out a game high three assists while Anthony Atkinson-Enneking led Barton with eight boards to help the Cougars outrebound the T-Birds by three.
Conference leading scorer Jay Lewis led all scorers with 25 points on 10-of-24 shooting from the floor. Iyen Enaruna tallied the lone double-double performance of the evening, chalking up eighteen points and grabbing a game high twelve rebounds. Chad Vincent-Simon rounded out the double figure scorers with ten points off the bench to go along with his team high two assists.