An often used cliché in post-season is survive and advance. For the Barton Community College men's basketball team the tangle Wednesday night against Cloud County Community College fit the old saying as the Cougars didn't take their final lead until sixty-eight seconds were left on the clock to close out Barton Gym on a 91-85 victory.
The 4th seeded Cougars move on in the playoffs with a 23-8 record in earning Head Coach Craig Fletchall's 450th career collegiate victory in topping 23 or more wins ten times in his fifteen years at the Barton helm. Cloud County's season come to a close at 10-21 for the 13th seeded T-Birds.
Next up is a Sunday trip to Dodge City's United Wireless Arena where the Cougars will meet 5th seeded Coffeyville Community College (23-8) in the 3:00 p.m. quarterfinal contest with the winner advancing to take on top seeded Cowley or 8th seeded Hutchinson in Monday's 7:00 p.m. game. The Red Ravens earned their journey to Dodge City with a 97-63 rout over 12th seeded Dodge City Community College.
Both teams struggled in the opening twenty minutes to bury shots, the Cougars shooting just over 37% while Cloud County came up just shy of that. The T-birds did make three more shots behind the arc while Barton found its fifteen point lead shrunk to a 38-32 halftime margin being two shots better from the field and aided by a five point swing from the charity stripe.
Action heated up in the second half as both teams fought throughout to advance their season. Jay Lewis proved to everyone in attendance he may very well be the best player in Region VI, pouring in twenty-eight second half points on 11-of-17 shooting including five behind the arc leading a 58.8% shooting by Cloud County.
Barton also heated up in the final twenty with a much better 44.8% shooting but while the T-birds were knocking down outside shots, the Cougars attacked the rim piling up twenty-one Cloud County fouls resulting in trips to the free throw line. From the stripe the Cougars were solid, sinking 25-of-30 from the white line (83.3%) to counter the T-birds upset bid.
The big swing came at the 1:08 mark left in the game with the Cougars trailing by two and Mavrick Gildyard getting fouled on a drive to the hoop. The foul call followed by a technical resulted in four charity tosses for Barton, two from Gildyard and two from Jaheim Holden to turn the tide into an 85-83 Cougar lead.
Four seconds later, the Cougars committed an ill-advised foul sending Dyelan Reed to the line with the freshman blocking out the Barton crowd with a pair of perfect tosses tying the game for the eighth and final time. Gildyard put the Cougars back in front for good twenty seconds later on a big man move in the lane with Holden helping seal the win on the defensive end with his fifth rebound of the night resulting in another perfect trip to the line pushing the margin to two possessions with twenty-five clicks left. Two trips back to the T-bird offensive end resulted in a pair of missed Lewis three-point attempts, both hauled down by Martin Vogts with the sophomore closing out his two-year home floor experience with 3-of-4 free throw shooting providing the final margin.
All five starters lugged the majority of the minutes, each reaching double figures with Gildyard's twenty-five leading the way. Holden's perfect thirteen tosses from the stripe help account for twenty-two. Vogts finished with twelve points in just missing his first collegiate double by pulling down nine rebounds helping give Barton a ten board edge on the glass. Anthony Atkinson-Enneking did get his double-double, recording his second of the season behind an eleven point and eleven rebound performance to go along with a pair of blocks. Diovonte Caldwell, who drew the assignment of chasing Lewis all evening, produced ten points with six rebounds and two steals, tying Holden and Vogts, while dishing out three dimes matching Holden and Gildyard for team high honors. Justin Harmon and Desean Munson combined for eleven points and six rebounds off the bench including a near perfect 9-of-10 from the free throw line.
Lewis' game high thirty-three points came on 13-of-21 shooting, 6-of-11 from behind the arc. DJ Sims added twelve with Reed rounding out the double digit scoring with ten.