Barton men take driver's seat of second place with twenty point win over Dodge City

The Barton Community College men's basketball team shot over 50% Saturday night at the Barton Gym scoring fifty-one second half points in sending Dodge City Community College to an 87-67 defeat.  Tied at 11, the Cougars broke open first half play with a 9-0 run to never look back, getting another nine point stretch mid-way through the second half building its largest lead of twenty-eight points before cruising the final ten minutes for the win holding the Conquistadors to their lowest shooting percentage of the year.  The victory opens up a two game Barton lead for second place in the Jayhawk at 16-5, improving to 20-5 on the season, while sending Dodge City to 14-7 in conference play and 17-8 overall.  Next up for the Cougars is a trip to first place Hutchinson Community College for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off against the No. 4 ranked Blue Dragons in the Sports Arena.

Noah Webster came off the bench to lead all scorers with twenty three-points for his second straight twenty-plus night while tying for the team lead in assists with three.  Knocking down 5-of-7 from long distance, Webster keyed big runs for the Cougars burying four in the game's first eight minutes in an 18-5 stretch and draining another in Barton's 9-0 run in building its largest lead.  Anthony Smith's fourteen rebounds to go along with seventeen points marked the seventh double-double of the season for the Maryland sophomore being joined by Malik Toppin's thirteen rebounds helping to give the Cougars a nine board edge on the glass.  Malik Rhodes added sixteen with Jahlil Rawley contributing fourteen as the duo joined Webster with the team high three assists each. 

Only two Conquistadors reached double figures with Kourtney Ware leading the way with eleven after scoring twenty-five against the Cougars earlier in the season while Mike Jones scored ten.

In addition to the defensive limitation on Ware, the Cougars held the Conquistadors to 32% shooting from the field and also kept Josh Boutte off the glass having grabbed nineteen in the previous meeting but collecting just four Saturday night in twelve minutes of action.