The Barton Community College men's basketball team never trailed Wednesday evening in Arkansas City as the Cougars picked up a defensive 68-61 victory at Cowley College.
Splitting the season series and stopping a two game losing streak on the Tigers' home court, Barton improves to a fifth place conference mark of 8-6 and 13-7 on the season while Cowley slips to 6-9 in league and 12-9 overall.
Next up for the Cougars is Saturday's Hall of Fame Day hosting of Hutchinson Community College for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.
Having a week to stew on a home loss, Cougar Downing's opening bucket put Barton on the board first as the Cougars would never relinquish the lead. The game was tied four times, the last coming at 43-all with 13:56 remaining but Downing's bucket halted Cowley's 5-0 spurt putting Barton out front for the remainder of the game.
Downing led all players in the contest with 19 points on 50% shooting and a perfect eight shots from the charity stripe. Making his second consecutive start in place of injured Joseph Locandro, Aime Rutayisire put together another double-digit night in shooting 70% for 16 points and 5 rebounds. Hannes Saar dropped a pair behind the arc towards a 14 point night with Mozae Downing-Rivers leading the squad with 7 rebounds and adding 8 points.
Mekhi Cameron led Cowley with 12 points as Xavier Washington, Damare Smith, and Xavier Valley each contributed 11 points.
Following Downing's opening bucket and Cowley firing back for the answer, the Cougars strung nine straight over the next three minutes for an 11-2 lead.
Cowley crept back to within three over the next eight minutes until Stefan Spray's inside bucket helped kick start a 9-0 run with Downing-Rivers contributing five of the points growing Barton's lead to its largest of twelve with 5:52 left.
The Tigers knocked down their fourth three-pointer of the half to halt the run but was countered by Saar's first of the night. Cowley drained another to cut the margin under ten but reserve Nicodemo Majuec's eight foot baby hook for his first points since the season opener pushed the gap back to eleven.
Canning two more treys in the next three minutes, the Tigers sliced the deficit to 35-30 behind seven total long distance makes in first half action.
Trading baskets coming out the locker room, Cowley would tie it up three times, the last coming at 43. Downing put Barton back on top with the Cougars keeping Cowley at arms reach by methodically building the margin out to nine by the mid-point.
Four point stretches were the theme in the final nine minutes, Cowley surging first in cutting it to a five point gap with Barton following with their own four point spurts to counter.
The final nails were delivered under sixty-five seconds to play, Downing-Rivers with a dribble drive leading to a Rutayisre bucket and Cooper Jackson, the Region VI theft leader, coming up with his third seal of the game leading to Saar's 1-of-2 success from the free throw line for an eight point lead with 46 seconds remaining.