The hot shooting Barton Community College men's basketball team snapped a mini slide Saturday afternoon at the Barton Gym powering the Cougars to a 93-60 victory over Cloud County Community College.
The victory snapped Barton's three-game losing streak improving to 2-4 in conference play and 2-4 overall while dropping Cloud County to 2-4 in league and 4-4 overall.
The Cougars hit the road for their next two contests, visiting Seward County Community College at 8:00 p.m. Monday followed by a 7:30 p.m. tip Wednesday at Garden City Community College. Barton will then embark on a two-game home stand beginning Saturday in hosting Colby Community College then will play a rare 3:00 p.m. start time game on Monday, March 1, against Neosho County Community College
Shooting behind the arc was the big story on Barton's eleventh straight win in the series as the Cougars buried 14-of-20 (70%). Shooting a season low 43.1% Wednesday at Butler, the Cougars finished at 52.5% from the field and 15-of-17 from the charity stripe to eclipse 88% free throw shooting for the third time in seven games.
Barton was led by the combined 9-of-11 shooting from Willie Lapoole and Asanti Price as the duo knocked down four in the opening ten minutes but the Cougars managed just a 19-12 lead into the first half media timeout despite ten T-bird turnovers.
Jaheim Holden helped key a 14-6 stretch to open up the margin, draining a triple on the Cougars first possession from the break before feeding Price for a dunk to pump more energy into the club. Barton would drain three more treys in the next three minutes on Price's third of the half with Thomas King getting into the action with a baseline draining and Lapoole sinking his third.
Following a Cloud County timeout at 4:17 with Barton's lead ballooning to fifteen. A minute late Lapoole stroked his fourth of the half as the Cougars would ride their eighteen point spread to the locker room at 44-26.
Two big second half spurts stuck the dagger in the T-birds with Barton building the lead to 36 points with 11:41 to play. One minute later Barton rattled off another eleven straight coming on Lapoole's fifth three point and capped by six straight coming from Holden. After Cloud County 1-of-2 trip to the line, Lapoole and Holden went deep on consecutive Barton possessions giving the Cougars their largest lead.
Lapoole led five Cougars in double-digit scoring with a career high 29 points on 10-of-14 shooting including a 6-of-7 dialed in from beyond the arc while also hauling down seven rebounds, dishing out four assists, and recording a block and steal. Holden came off the bench for 16 points with a team leading seven assists with Price finishing up with 15. Justin Harmon added 12 while Desean Munson booked 10. Evans Kipruto led the Cougars to a five rebound advantage in gathering a team high eight rebounds in just nine minutes of court time.
Detavius Freeman and Ibrahim Dram were the lone T-birds to reach double digits with 10 points each with David Acosta collecting eight rebounds.