No. 9 Cougars open conference play with victory at pre-season favorite Seward County
Dropping from the ranks of the unbeaten earlier in the week, the No. 9 Barton Community College men’s basketball team opened up the 2013 Jayhawk Conference season Saturday night with its biggest win of the year knocking off the conference favorite Seward County Community College Saints 79-66 in Liberal. Snapping a six-game losing streak to the Saints, Barton improves to 14-1 on the season while dropping Seward to 9-6. Barton will take to the court for the second time in three days as the Cougars take on Dodge City Community College at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the debut of Barton’s new gym floor “L.T. and Sheila Fleske Court”.
The Cougars never trailed in Saturday's contest as Barton jumped out to 7-0 lead to start the game. Freshman Raheem Johnson's tomahawk one-handed jam off a Cougar missed shot set the tone early for the Cougars. Turon Parker then knocked down a trey and Johnson followed with another inside bucket as Barton was in control early.
Leading by ten at the midpoint of the first half, Barton went cold from the field and was scoreless for the next five minutes. Behind a stifling defense, the Cougars held the Saints at arm's reach during that stretch as Seward was only able to draw within two. Breaking the drought, Barton pushed the lead out to six before settling into a four point 34-30 lead at intermission.
The second half was much the same as Barton scored the first four points and quickly built an eleven point lead shortly afterward. The Saints drew as close as five points midway through the half before another Johnson two-handed follow dunk capped a 4-0 Barton run pushing the lead back to nine. The teams traded buckets for the next six minutes until the Cougars wrapped up the game in the last three minutes scoring their last eight points from the charity stripe.
Turon Parker's career high twenty-two points led three Cougars in double-digit scoring connecting on four-of-seven from behind the arc and a perfect eight-for-eight from the free throw line. Algie Key scored twenty-one and dished out five assists while Andell Cumberbatch recorded his second double-double of the season with fifteen points and ten rebounds. Raheem Johnson just missed recording a double-double as he grabbed a team high twelve rebounds to go along with eight points on four-of-five shooting.
Jabari Peters led four Saints in double-digit scoring with seventeen on four-of-seven from long distance. Kaheem Johnson scored twelve points with a team high four assists while Jerry Cobb and Malcolm Hill-Bey scored eleven and ten points respectively.