Wednesday night's showdown of top ten nationally ranked teams quickly turned into a lopsided affair as the 9th ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team was handed an empathic first loss of the season 90-57 at 4th ranked Coffeyville Community College
Splitting their first two conference games, both coming on the road, Barton falls to 10-1 on the year while Coffeyville improves to 3-0 in the Jayhawk East and 10-1 on the season. The Cougars will next have their conference home opener on Saturday in a 7:30 p.m. hosting of Independence Community College (2-1, 7-5).
The game's final six minutes was a microcosm of how the night went at the Nellis Hall Gymnasium. Coming out of a timeout at the 6:13 mark left in the game and Barton cutting the deficit to eighteen, everything went wrong. From turnovers, giving up offensive rebounds, and fouls on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court, the Cougars went without scoring a point until thirty-three seconds remaining behind a pair of Anthony Atkinson-Enneking free throws.
Rewind to the first four minutes of the contest and Barton found themselves in a 10-0 hole as the Ravens knocked down two three-pointers in blowing the game open early. Behind six points from Leondre Washington, the Cougars climbed to within six at 12-6 but it would be the closest Barton would be for the rest of the game. A 7-0 run quickly increased the margin out to fourteen coming on Barton's sixth turnover in the first five minutes and later ballooned to sixteen before the half after an 8-2 spurt.
The Cougars finished 3-of-23 from the beyond the arc, getting the trio early in the second half with Martin Vogts knocking down a pair and Diovonte Caldwell knocking down the other. The Ravens held off any Barton surge with constant attack on the offensive end with Barton later going stone cold in the final six minutes to suffer their worst defeat in the series history.
Washington was the lone Cougar into double figures scoring fourteen points with Caldwell contributing nine. Akeem White and John Williams shared team high five rebound honors as the Cougars' 33% shooting contributed to getting outrebounded 46-28.
Five Ravens scored in double digits with Marvin Johnson leading with twenty-one while dishing out seven assists and coming away with five thefts. Miekkel Murray added nineteen with Tony Hutson putting fourteen on the scoreboard coming off the bench. Tevin Brewer dished out a team high eight dimes to go along with twelve points and Keon Queen rounded out the double-digit scorer's with eleven. Manny Crump led the glass effort with ten rebounds.