Cougars keep record perfect with wins in Booster Club Classic
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team remained perfect on the season, winning a pair of games in the Booster Club Classic over the weekend at the Barton County Gym. Barton fought back a pesky Simmons College (Ky) team Friday, 75-51 then gunned down New Mexico Junior College Saturday 69-62 to remained unbeaten. Fellow Jayhawk West school Cloud County also won 2 games at the event and remained unbeaten. Barton is now 8-0 on the season and will head to the Jayhawk Shoot-Out in Coffeyville next weekend. The Cougars will take on Johnson County and Cowley County from the Jayhawk East.

Highlights
Saturday Barton trailed most of the 1st half and were down by 29-27 at the intermission. The Cougars came out to start the 2nd half on a 18-7 run to take a 45-36 lead on the Thunderbirds from New Mexico Junior College with just more than 11 minutes to play. The Cougars held that lead the rest of the way as New Mexico JC could not get closer than 6 the final 11 minutes. The Thunderbirds had it down to a 6 point game with 1:30 to play and again with 50 seconds to left but a breakaway dunk by Ivan Evans pushed the lead back to 66-58. The Cougars connected on 3-of-4 free throws in the final 30 seconds to secure the win.

Omar Johnson scored 20 points to pace the Cougars and added 6 assists. Ivan Evans recorded another double-double with 16 points and 15 rebounds – 11 defensive. Chris Jackson added 12 points for the Cougars, who hit 8-of-20 3-pointers. The Cougars hit 51 percent from the floor in the 2nd half.

Friday, the Cougars had to win a different way. Barton likes to get up and down the floor and Simmons kept the Cougars to their lowest point total of the season in a 75-51 win over the Panthers. Barton had trouble shaking the patient visitors, leading nearly the entire way but never by more than 6 in the opening half. The Cougars took a 32-26 lead to the locker room. Barton quickly pushed it to 11 to start the 2nd half before Simmons whittled it back to 43-37 with 13 minutes to play. That is when Barton went on an 18-4 run to take a 61-41 lead with 6 minutes to play. From there, the Cougars coasted to the win.

Thiago Cordeiro recorded his 6th double-double of his career with a career-high 20 points to go with 13 rebounds. Ivan Evans had his 7th career double-double with 14 points and 13 boards. Omar Johnson scored 15 and Matt Green added a career-high 11. Evans also had a career-high 8 assists in the game, 2 shy of his 1st triple-double.

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

Next
Fri, Dec 1 – v Johnson, 5 pm (Shoot-Out at Coffeyville) 
Sat, Dec 2 – v Cowley, 9 pm (Shoot-Out at Coffeyville)

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