The Barton Community College men's basketball team held off Clarendon College for a 71-66 escape win in Friday's final game of the Best Western/Cougar Booster Club Classic.
The Cougars trailed by six midway through second half action but a late 12-3 stretch flipped the script as Barton came up with timely defensive stands and sinking critical free throws preserving the victory.
Barton stays unbeaten on the early season at 5-0 while dropping Clarendon to 3-2. The Cougars wrap up the Classic in Saturday's 7:30 p.m. contest against McCook Community College coming off an 88-61 defeat to 15th ranked Hutchinson in slipping to 1-4. The Blue Dragons, who outscored the Indians by twenty-two in second half play, takes on Clarendon in the 3:00 p.m. contest.
RECAP
If you missed the opening fourteen minutes of the game, you didn't miss much as the teams struggled with Clarendon holding a 17-12 advantage following a pair of free throws at the 6:05 media timeout. Barton shot just 26.3% (5-19) with ten turnovers while the Bulldogs made just 4-of-22 (18.2%) with 5 turnovers.
The Bulldogs' largest lead of the half quickly dissolved as Cougar Downing's mid-range jumper kick started a 14-2 stretch spanning across four minutes for Barton's largest lead coming at 26-19 with 1:15 left. The Cougars then missed their next four shots with Clarendon knocking down a trey and a pair of free throws in the final 35 seconds to cut Barton's lead to 26-24 into halftime.
It took Clarendon three minutes to reclaim the lead on four straight, only to have Barton quickly retake the advantage. The teams battled on the seesaw through the ensuing seven minutes before a 9-0 run put the Bulldogs out in front 49-43 at the mid-point.
Still trailing by five two minutes later, De'Antray Hughes' high flying follow-up dunk off of Hannes Saar's miss ignited the Cougars and Barton's raucous student body section. Saar rejected the Bulldogs' next shot then finished a slash to the hole with a kiss off the glass drawing the Cougars to within one. The Cougars then came up with another defensive stop with Saar's behind the back pass leading to a Hughes lay-in putting Barton ahead 55-54 with 7:02 remaining.
Clarendon again surged back in the lead on a 6-0 spurt only to have Saar's jumper followed by a And-1 conversion bookending a 7-0 response for Barton's 64-60 advantage with 2:51 to play. The Bulldogs hung around, cutting the gap to one with 46 seconds left but Downing was perfect on two trips to the line in sealing the victory.
STATS
Saar's all-around performance led the Cougars with 16 points, grabbing 6 rebounds and dishing out 3 assists while defensively coming up with some big stops in blocking three Bulldog shots and also recording a steal. Trey Bates III came up with some timely shots on the way to 12 points with Evans Kipruto adding 11 points. Hughes flirted with a double-double in hauling down 9 rebounds and contributing 10 points. Keith Robinson buried 3-of-8 from beyond the arc for 9 points, none larger than his triple with 1:33 remaining putting Barton up five points and securing one of his six rebounds with 45 seconds left helping to preserve the then 1-point lead. Downing finished with 9 points on 7-of-8 free throw shooting and a game high 7 assists.
Zarique Nutter led all players with 26 points on 10-of-21 shooting from the field. Ibn Loyal knocked down 3-of-4 from long distance to add 18 points as the only other player to reach double figures while joining Conner Landell for team high rebound honors with 7 each.