A six minute second half stretch provided the difference maker Wednesday night at the Barton Gym as the Barton Community College men's basketball team fell to Cloud County Community College 69-66.
The T-Birds opened up the separation it needed with a 6-0 two minute stretch gaining a seven point margin, then following a Cougar Downing triple, rattled off five more to open up a nine point edge with 4:34 remaining. Barton closed to within five a handful of times but couldn't capitalize on multiple opportunities as the T-Birds held on to snap a twelve game losing streak in the series.
Barton falls to 2-4 in conference play in having their modest two game win streak end, falling to 8-4 on the season while Cloud County improves to 3-3 and 7-5 overall.
The Cougars next travel to Pratt Community College on Saturday before wrapping up the fall slate on Monday in hosting No. 19 Butler Community College. Tip-off slated for 7:30 p.m. for both contests.
RECAP
The T-Birds took the early edge following De'Antray Hughes opening dunk knocking down their first of nine three-pointers in the contest to take the lead. Cloud County would go on to bury their 4th three pointer by the six minute mark, eventually stretching its lead to seven with 11:52 at 21-14.
Myles Thompson's trey sparked a Barton 17-4 seven minute stretch with Joseph Locandro scoring all five of his points during the span helping the Cougars flip the script to a 31-25 lead late in the half. Following a T-Bird bucket, Keith Robinson's long range splash matched Cloud's largest lead of seven points before consecutive Joe Kearney three-pointers in the final sixty seconds left the teams headed to the locker room with Barton leading at just 34-33.
The teams battled back and forth through the opening twelve minutes with the Cougars still leading by one until the tide turned. Beginning with Nate Duckworth lone connection from deep in four tries, the T-Birds gained the pivotal separation on a 9-1 spurt in two minutes including a 6-0 run to open a 54-47 lead with 5:55 remaining. Downing's trey briefly interrupted the Cloud County momentum as Corey Sawyer's lone triple followed by a Barton turnover resulting in a transition layup pushed the visitor's edge to nine with 4:34 on the clock.
Robinson and Josh Jordan's three-pointers would cut the gap to five two minutes later but a series of events would ensue signaling it was just not the Cougars night.
Needing a defensive stop, the Barton defense did everything it needed preventing any good look at a shot until the 6'1" Duckworth found a seam putting up a one-handed 12-foot runner over the outstretched leap of 6'8" Evans Kipruto in beating the shot clock. Sixty seconds later following Jordan's perfect pair of charity tosses cut the margin back to five, a loose rebound again coming late in the shot clock was incidentally tipped in, credited to Sawyer, digging the Cougars another seven point deficit with just 1:14 on the clock.
Barton still had chances down the stretch, cutting it to five on Hannes Saar's slash to the hole at the one minute mark, the T-Birds leaving the door open missing the front end of a pair of one-and-one trips to the line, but a pair of costly Barton turnovers helped prevent the comeback.
Cloud County would hold on, sinking a pair of free throws with eleven seconds and despite Saar's trey cutting the gap to four with seven seconds remaining, sank another pair to seal the deal as Downing sank his third and final trey of the game before the buzzer for the final margin.
STATS
The Cougars were held to a season second worst scoring output, breaking their string of two straight in eclipsing 50% from the filed in finishing at 43.1% including 39.1% (9-23) from beyond the arc. Statistically there wasn't much difference between the two teams, Cloud County making just one more field goal for 44.8%, matching Barton's made shots beyond the arc for 38.5%, and sinking one more free throw than the Cougars.
Opportunities provided the difference, the T-Birds taking advantage of the plus-4 turnover margin in producing 19 more points off of miscues than the Cougars.
Barton just had two players reach double figures, Downing leading the way with 18 points, distributing four assists and coming up with four of the Cougars' eight steals. Saar finished with 11 points as Robinson's 3-of-5 shooting beyond the arc added 9 points off the bench.
The Cougars had a season best 10 shot rejections led by Kipruto's 6 as Hughes led the rebounding with 8 helping Barton outrebound their opponent for the twelfth straight time.
Duckworth's 19 points and 8 assists led all players with Kearney adding 18 points on 4-of-8 long range shooting and grabbing 9 rebounds and chalking up 6 of the T-Birds' 14 steals. Sawyer rounded out the double-digit scoring with 12 points, Malang Athian finishing with a solid overall night with 7 rebounds and 9 points coming off 3-of-4 three-point shooting.