Barton men run away with big conference opening win at Cowley #GoBarton

The Barton Community College men's basketball team opened up conference play Saturday night in Arkansas City with the game's first bucket and continued to roll by defeating Cowley College 85-61.

Winning their third straight at White Auditorium, Barton's second largest margin of victory over Cowley improved the Cougars to 10-0 on the season while dropping the Tigers to an 0-2 start in slipping to 8-4 on the year. Barton's will make a return trip to south central Kansas on Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. tip at No. 4 Coffeyville Community College (1-0, 8-1).

Leondre Washington carved up the Tigers early by scoring and breaking down the defense leading a 5-0 run capped by a hoop-n-harm for a six point edge four minutes into the game. Diovonte Caldwell buried consecutive triples with John Williams stroking a fifteen foot jumper followed by an Akeem White transition hoop and Washington's leaned in trey exploded the lead out to fourteen in the next four minutes. The Cougars kept rolling in building the lead out to twenty with 7:30 to play and as much as twenty-three on a Dontia Johnson transition dunk from Eric Amandio's long pass with 2:17 left before half.

The Tigers cut the margin to twenty at the break before shaving two more off with the second frame's opening bucket. White's thunderous dunk and offensive rebound putback on either side of Washington pair of free throws dunk answered the call in sparking six straight to push the lead back out to twenty-four. Cowley chipped away at the lead in spurts but was never able to pull back under the twenty mark as Tyrell Andrews' trey with 4:30 left gave Barton their largest lead of twenty-nine.