Big first half powers Cougars to coasting win over Coffeyville #GoBarton

The Barton Community College men's basketball team surrendered just fourteen first half points in building a large lead in coasting to a 74-48 victory Saturday afternoon at the Barton Gym over Coffeyville Community College.

Leading 46-14 at the halftime break, the Cougars led by as many as 37 points with under ten minutes to play while defensively holding Coffeyville to its lowest output in the thirty-six game series in snapping a short two-game losing streak to the Red Ravens.

The second straight win improves Barton to 2-3 in league and 8-3 overall while dropping Coffeyville to 2-3 in league and 5-6 on the season.

Barton wraps up their brief two-game home stand on Wednesday hosting Cloud County Community College in a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.

RECAP
Cougar Downing's three pointer 2:20 into the contest put Barton up 3-2 and ahead for good. Barton broke open the game early on a 10-0 run capped by another Downing trey while defensively holding the Red Ravens scoreless for five minutes resulting in the Cougars' 17-6 lead with eleven minutes remaining.  Following the first of just three Coffeyville three-pointers in the game, Barton strung eight straight together, interrupted by a Red Raven 1-of-2 trip to the line, before launching a 12-2 stretch for a 40-12 lead with under a minute to play. A Coffeyville tip-in with 39 seconds to play was met thirteen seconds later by Downing's long range splash as Joseph Locandro would also drain it from deep with six seconds left in the half for Barton's 46-14 lead.

De'Antray Hughes' dunk and subsequent steal leading to Hannes Saar's lay-up took the lead to thirty-six shortly out of the locker room, reaching that margin again at the 15:44 mark on Saar's ringing the bell from long range.  Coffeyville took the next five points with Barton countering with six straight highlighted by consecutive Josh Jordan jumpers pushing the margin to its largest at 61-24 with 9:38 remaining.

The next two minutes was the Jordan Williams' show, canning a pair of long range three-pointers in scoring 12 of the Red Ravens' 15 straight points cutting the margin to twenty-two before Downing buried a deep three halting the stretch. Following a Coffeyville 1-of-2 trip to the free throw line, Locandro's two charity tosses and Downing steal and transition dunk pushed the margin back to twenty-eight before Coffeyville rattled off the next six.  Barton closed out the final three minutes of scoring rattling the rim twice with Modibo Sanogo getting loose for dunks with two minutes remaining and the final one with 27 ticks left.

STATS
The Cougars eclipsed the 50% shooting mark for the second straight game, connecting on 28-of-55 (50.9%) from the floor and matching a season high 11 shots beyond the arc for 35.5%.  The Red Ravens improved on its 12.5% first half shooting, outscoring Barton 34-28 in the second half to finish at 20.3% including just 3-of-19 from deep.  Coffeyville was a solid 79.2% from the free throw line (19-24) to have a twelve point edge from the stripe. 

All eleven Cougars scored in the contest led by Downing's game high 19 points and 4 assists, connecting on 7-of-13 from the floor including 5-of-11 from beyond the arc. Locandro contributed 9 points to lead 29 points off the Barton bench as Evans Kipruto just missed a double-double in producing 9 points and hauling down 9 rebounds leading a Cougar plus-15 edge on the glass.

Williams finished with 13 points off the bench to lead the Red Ravens as Love Bettis' 11 points rounded out the double-digit Coffeyville scoring as Noah Butler contributed 9 points.  Izek Jackson led in rebounding with 10 boards with Deng Mayar grabbing 9 as the duo combined for 8 of the Red Ravens' 14 offensive rebounds.