Cougars advance to quarterfinals with win over Blue Devils
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team moved into the Region VI quarterfinals with an 88-75 win over Kansas City Kansas in the first round of the tournament Wednesday night at the Barton County Gym.

The win improves the No. 4 ranked Cougars to 28-3 on the season while KCK ends it season with a 10-20 mark. Barton County, the top seed in the tournament, will take on Cloud County Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Bicentennial Center in Salina in quarterfinal action. Cloud won on the road at Allen County, 82-70.

Highlights
The trip to Salina was in jeopardy with 8:30 to play in the contest as KCK held a 71-64 lead on the Cougars and had three free throw attempts to push the lead to 10. But Stephone Washington missed all 3 attempts and Cougars rallied. Barton County took the lead when Richard Chavez drilled a trey with 4:51 to play, putting Barton on top 72-71. The run continued until it reached 16-0 and Barton had an 80-71 lead with 1:51 to play.

At the time KCK held the 7-point lead, the Blue Devils had hit 13-of-21 3-point attempts. KCK ended the night hitting 13-of-26.

Barton put four players in double figures, led by Nouha Diakite, who tied his career high with 24 points. Diakite also grabbed 7 boards. Robert Whaley added 16 points and 9 rebounds while Justin Rose finished with 17 points and 8 boards. Rodney Epperson added 14 and 7. Chavez, playing several minutes at the point in place of injured Randy Pulley, had a career-high 13 assists to go with the big trey to give Barton the lead for good.

KCK was led by Jonathan Danner with 19 points and Greg Wells with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
The Cougars move to Salina, where they will need 3 wins to advance to the NJCAA National Tournament. Barton County will play Cloud County in the quarterfinals Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Bicentennial Center in Salina.

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Check out Barton County Men's Basketball Online at www.bartonccc.edu/sports