14th ranked Barton men derailed by 5th ranked Cowley in Region title game #GoBarton

The 14th ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team had its sights set on a second straight title derailed Saturday evening 72-62 to 5th ranked Cowley College in the Region 6/Plains District Championship held at Fort Hays State University's Gross Memorial Coliseum.

Seeded third for the tournament, Barton drops to 25-8 on the season while the top seeded Tigers improve to 29-4 earning the automatic entry into the NJCAA National Tournament.

For the Cougars, the waiting game begins for the defending national champions for a possible at-large bid set to be announced Sunday evening at 7:00 p.m on the NJCAA Network (www.njcaa.org/network).

Held to a season low point total and playing a shortened bench, four of the six Cougars hitting the floor reached double figures being led by Sebastian Muchitsch's 14 points and team high 9 rebounds.

Fresh off a career high 25 points the night prior, Fontaine Williams added 12 points with 5 rebounds and 2 assists off the bench.

Keandre Kindell, along with Williams being selected on the All-Tourney team, had an off-shooting night but contributed a solid box score of 11 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals.

Eltramon Smith, Jr. contributed 10 points and 6 rebounds in rounding out the Cougars' double figure scoring.

Aris Rodriguez' 8 points and 5 rebounds was joined by Brent Moss' 7 points with 8 rebounds helping the Cougars to a plus-7 rebound advantage.

The Cougars jumped out to an early 8-0 lead into the first 15:42 media timeout but on the flip side the Tigers regrouped from an 0-6 field goal start giving a preview of what would be for the next fifteen minutes by canning a pair a three-pointers. Barton held the advantage until the ten minute mark for the game's first tie, flip-flopping one-point leads with the Cougars' final of the half coming with 8:19 left. Four straight by the Tigers flipped the lead as Cowley would stay on top into the halftime break at 40-37.

The big story of the first half was Cowley's long range shooting of 9-of-20, 4-of-8 coming from Marcus Whitlock, Jr. for a 16-point opening frame output.

Whitlock would lead all scorers finishing with 23 points, Shamarrie Hugie and Dallas Whitney contributing 10 points each as the lone three Tigers reaching double figures.

Cowley cooled off in the second half making just 2-of-10 but the Cougars couldn't counter from deep shooting a season low 10 three-point attempts and making just two.

Field goals were a premium in second half play as defense prevailed in the first eight minutes combining for fourteen points.

Action then turned to the paint, either short jumpers or trips to the free throw line resulting in a combined 31 charity tosses in the second half.

Barton's perfect 6-of-6 in a two minute span put the Cougars on top at 49-48 with the last tie coming a minute later at 51-all at the 8:16 mark.

Fourteen seconds later Cowley broke the final gridlock converting an And-1 sparking a decisive 8-0 stretch capped by their finale 11th three-pointer of the contest resulting in a 59-51 lead with 6:46 remaining.

The Cougars hung around cutting the margin to five points multiple times including with 1:36 left but could never get it to a single possession deficit as Cowley tacked on some late free throws growing the final margin to its largest of ten.