The Barton Community College men's basketball team shook off a pesky Northwest Kansas Technical College squad Wednesday night at the Barton Gym with a dominating final seven minutes to dispatch the Mavericks 97-74.
Tied atop the Jayhawk West standings at 8-3, the Cougars improve to 16-4 on the season while Northwest Tech suffers its eleventh straight loss dropping to 0-11 in league action and 2-16 overall.
Barton concludes its brief two-game home stand on Saturday in a 7:30 p.m. tip against surging Seward County Community College.
The Cougars led 7-2 three minutes into the contest and again at 9-7 sixty seconds later but the ensuing six minutes were mostly the Mavericks in building a 26-20 lead with 9:26 left in the opening stanza.
Diovonte Caldwell's three pointer at the nine minute mark gave the Cougars a spark but the next possession took the squad to another level. Set up by Martin Vogts' steal on the defensive end, the down court pass to Keandre Bowles was pure as the freshman hammered down a posterizing dunk energizing the crowd. Fouled on the play, Bowles converted the bonus free throw, added two more tosses after a defensive stop led another trip to the line, with Caldwell sinking a pair of charity tosses later capping the 9-0 stretch putting Barton ahead 29-26 with 7:02 remaining.
Barton held the lead over the next three minutes with the leader flip flopping the rest of the half resulting in a 43-42 Maverick lead to the break.
Much of the same transpired for the first seven minutes of the second frame as the game became tied for the 11th and final time on Anthony Atkinson-Enneking's tip-in making it 58-all. A defensive stop with Jaheim Holden drawing an offensive charge, Enneking's 1-of-2 trip to the free throw line on the home team's end of the court put Barton ahead for good with 12:41 remaining.
Desean Munson's perfect pair of tosses three minutes later expanded the gap out to nine as the margin stayed above five points to the final 5:40. Holden, who buried three beyond the arc on the night, knocked down treys on both sides of Bowles' layup as the eight straight in eighty seconds increased the difference out to thirteen.
The Cougars put the final touches on their fourth straight win over Northwest Tech with a 13-0 closeout in the remaining 3:34 to topple the 90-point mark for the eleventh time of the year.
Munson led all players on the night with twenty points to go along with a team second best eight rebounds as Enneking led the squad with five assists and ten boards in adding fifteen points for the sophomore's first collegiate double-double performance. Holden's seventeen points were complimented with four assists and four steals, Bowles finished with sixteen, and Caldwell contributed ten. Limited due to foul problems, Mavrick Gildyard's eleven minutes of court time resulted in nine points and six rebounds helping Barton to a plus-12 on the glass.
Ian Hardy's eighteen points led three Mavericks in double figures, sharing the rebound honors with Garrett Richardson in pulling down seven each. Three Mavericks knocked down a trio of long range shots each on the night, CJ Rosser finishing with thirteen points while Pierles Brown and Reece Warren added ten and nine points respectively.