Barton men claw back from second half deficit for victory at Independence #GoBarton

The Barton Community College men's basketball team clawed its way back for victory Wednesday night on the road as the Cougars notched its first conference win of the season with a thrilling 83-80 win at Independence Community College.

Trailing by thirteen with under nine minutes to play, Barton outscored the Pirates 23-7 as Keith Robinson's left wing three-pointer gave the Cougars its first lead with 52 seconds remaining. Sinking 7-of-8 free throws the rest of the way, Barton held off Independence's response to snap its three-game losing streak to start conference play.

Barton improves to 1-3 in league and 7-3 overall while dropping Independence to 1-4 in league and 4-7 on the season.

Barton has a pair of home games next on the schedule beginning Saturday in a 4:00 p.m. hosting of Coffeyville Community College followed by Wednesday's 7:30 p.m. game against Cloud County Community College.

RECAP
The Pirates led from the start after an opening 2-for-2 trip to the line, later enjoying a brief six point advantage with eight minutes left in first half action and again with 5:07 left. Making his first start as a Cougar, Trey Rolfs provided a much needed spark to the lineup with seven first half points including knocking down his first of two triples cutting the deficit to three with 2:10 remaining.

The Pirates stretched their four point halftime edge to nine in the first two minutes following their then 6th three-pointer of the game as the Cougars committed four turnovers out of the locker room. Cougar Downing's drive to the paint halted the stretch but four straight by the Pirates pushed the margin back out until Rolfs reached double-figures on his second long ball slicing the deficit to eight with 15:45 left.

A six pack of Pirate points in the next three minutes aided by three more Barton turnovers stretched the margin back to double-digits. The lead grew to thirteen twice in the ensuing two minutes, the last coming a 68-59 on the Pirates 9th three-pointer with 8:36 remaining.

The Cougars began their climb back, getting four points from Evans Kipruto and a Downing bucket slicing the margin to seven. Following an Independence basket with 6:14 left, the Cougar defense held the Pirates scoreless for the next two and half minutes while offensively putting six more points on the board including Josh Jordan becoming the 11th Cougar to score finishing off a drive and pull-up jumper in the paint cutting the gap to five.

Barton stayed within striking distance until a 7-1 two minute decisive stretch capped by Robinson's triple with 52 seconds left put the Cougars ahead to stay. Downing's pair of free throws later with 13 seconds seemingly sealed the game but the Cougars elected for a quick foul three seconds later resulting in a pair of Pirate free throws cutting Barton's lead to one.

On the ensuing throw-in, Hannes Saar was fouled but the Pirate bench was additionally issued a technical foul. Downing went to the stripe making just 1-of-2 tosses on the technical awardings but Saar sank both his free throws pushing the margin to four with 8 seconds left. Independence quickly pushed the ball down the floor to drain its 11th three-pointer of the game but Saar iced the contest with another pair of free throws for the victory.

Down the stretch Saar was 8-of-8 from the line, sinking both ends of two pressure 1-and-1 situations preserving the lead before making the final two on a double bonus situation.

STATS
The Cougars shot 50% on the night on 29-of-58 shooting and 5-of-15 beyond the arc. Struggling at the free throw line most of the season, Barton was lights out at the stripe in sinking 20-of-22 (90.9%) including the critical seven made throws down the stretch.

Downing led four Cougars in double digits scoring fourteen of his 18 points in second half action. Kipruto added six offensive rebounds leading to 14 points, ten coming in the final seven minutes, and Rolfs scoring seven of his 10 points in first half play. Saar rounded out the top scorers with 10 points as Modibo Sanogo led the rebound effort with 10 rebounds helping Barton to a plus-9 edge on the boards and contributed 9 points to just miss his second double-double performance of the year.

Independence shot 42.2% for the game, connecting on 11-of-24 beyond the arc and draining 15-of-18 from the free throw line.

Jason Baker earn game high scoring honors with 20 points on 3-of-5 from long distance and 7-of-9 from the stripe. Ian Hardy added 14 points with Lucas Croft nailing 4-of-5 from deep for a 12 point evening. Johan hauled down a game high 11 rebounds, five coming on the offensive glass, while adding 12 points in the scoring column in recording the double-double effort.