Smith leads three Cougars with basketball post-season honors

Three Barton Community College men's basketball sophomores recently received post-season honors on the All-Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) Division I team with two landing on the All-Region VI Division I team.  Sophomore Anthony Smith headlined the trio earning first team honors on both the conference and region list, being joined on the conference first team by Ezekiel Charles who also landed on the regional second team.  Malik Rhodes rounded out the Cougar selections earning second team all-conference honors in his lone season with Barton.

Smith posted eleven double-double performances his sophomore year, hauling down double-digit rebounds five of his last six games as a Cougar including a twenty-three point and twelve rebound performance his last game, the final three points coming on his lone three-pointer of the year.  Leading the team in scoring eight of his thirty-three games this season, the Suitland, Maryland, native also led his team in rebounding in fourteen games.  Scoring a career high thirty-points leading a win against Pratt, Smith finished the year at 12.7 points per game and fourth in Region VI at 8.3 rebounds per contest.

Charles began his sophomore season on fire, opening up with a career high thirty points as the Brooklyn, New York, native led the Cougars in scoring six of the first eight games to average nearly twenty points per game.  Sidelined for over a month due to an injury, the Quinnipiac University signee played twenty-seven games his final season as a Cougar leading the team in scoring eight games, hauling down team high rebounds five times, and nine times led the team in steals.  Averaging 11.2 points his freshman campaign, Charles concluded his second year in a Cougar uniform averaging 13.6 points and 6.0 rebounds.

Transferring from Allan Hancock College, Rhodes was another key contributor to the season from the guard position leading the team in steals twelve times and dishing out team high assist honors in eleven games.   Scoring in double figures twenty-five of his thirty-three games as a Cougar, Rhodes led Barton averaging 13.7 points per game while dishing out a team second best 2.8 dimes per contest.  The Cincinnati, Ohio, native also became a clutch go-to guy for the Cougars down the stretch at the charity stripe draining 77.2% of his free throws to rank just outside the top ten in the region.

The Cougars' season came to an in end in the Region VI semifinals as Barton battled back from a twenty point early second half hole to fall by four, finishing the season at 25-8.