The Barton Community College men's basketball team returned to the win column by holding off Allen Community College 93-84 Saturday afternoon at the Barton Gym.
The bounce back game improved the Cougars to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in Jayhawk play while the fourth straight victory in the series drops Allen to 2-2 on the year and 1-1- in conference. Barton sets sight for Arkansas City, Kansas, for its next contest coming up Wednesday in a 7:30 p.m. tip at Cowley College.
Neither team was able to grab more than a five point margin through the first fourteen minutes until Barton strung together nine straight to seize a 37-32 lead with 3:46 remaining. Shawn Warrior keyed the spurt with four straight followed by Asanti Price's triple and Willie Lapoole's pair of charity shots. Allen closed the gap to two twice the rest of half including at the 42-40 halftime break.
Allen came out the aggressor in second half action scoring the first four points to set the tone. A 7-0 five minutes later had the visiting Red Devils a 57-53 lead at the 14:18 mark.
Behind a Jaheim Holden three-pointer followed by a pair of free throws, Barton erased Allen's final lead with Warrior putting the explanation mark on the 7-0 run with a transition dunk.
Barton widened the gap to seven with 8:49 to play on Lapoole's net swisher from behind the arc and again a possession later on an offensive rebound put-back. Warrior canned a three on Barton's next trip down the court pushing the gap to ten with 7:26 to play.
Allen owned the next minute to slice the deficit in half then hung around to draw within one at 80-79 with 3:05 left. Holden buried his fourth trey on the way to a career night to halt the momentum, then after sinking a pair of charity tosses, threaded the needle to find a cutting Desean Munson building the cushion to eight at 87-79 with 1:24 on the clock.
The Cougars sealed the victory from the free throw line down the stretch with Justin Harmon and Holden sinking a combined 6-of-6.
Holden's career high scoring night paced five Cougars in double-digits as the sophomore posted his third career double-double by dishing out ten dimes and scoring a new best 27 points behind 4-of-7 shooting while tying a program seventh best 11-for-11 from the free throw line. Lapoole posted his second consecutive double-double night in as many games played, dumping in 15 points and hauling down ten rebounds as Munson also contributed fifteen points to go along with seven rebounds. Giving the Cougars punch off the bench, Cameron Brooks-Harris knocked down a pair of treys for twelve points and Warrior's solid all-around game adding eleven points to the team total.
Cedric Rollerson led four Allen players in double-digits with twenty-two, Ed Wright III added sixteen off the bench, and Freddie Word and Amadou Traore contributed twelve and eleven respectively.