The Barton Community College men's basketball team shot a season high 58.3% Wednesday night at the Barton Gym in rolling to a 92-66 win over Seward County Community College to open up the 2022 portion of the slate.
The Cougars outscored the Saints by twenty-four points in an eleven minute first half span to break open a thirty point lead before widening the gap to thirty-one in the second half in cruising to the victory.
Barton improves to 3-6 in conference play and 9-6 on the season while dropping Seward County to 4-5 in league and 7-8 overall.
The Cougars next contest comes Saturday in Goodland for an 8:30 p.m. (Central Time) tip-off at Northwest Kansas Technical College.
Leading four Cougars in double-digits was Cougar Downing, burying 6-of-6 from beyond the arc for 22 points as Trey Bates III distributed a team high seven assists and added 15 points. Posting his first collegiate double-double with career highs, Joseph Locandro came off the bench scoring 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds leading a Barton plus-19 edge in rebounds. Myles Thompson just missed his second double-double of the season, pouring in 10 points with 9 rebounds.
Texas A&M signee Erik Pratt led all scorers as the lone Saint in double-figures, sinking 13-of-16 free throws and a pair of three-pointers on the way to a 29 point night and coming up with a game high six steals.
RECAP
Following Hannes Saar and Pratt's exchange of three-pointers to open the night's scoring, Bates scored six within Barton's 9-0 run for the early lead. Pratt's personal five point spurt sliced the gap to four but Downing replied with consecutive treys for an 18-8 lead. A Saints' bucket later, Locandro's triple sparked another nine point spurt and the Cougars were off and running. Tacking on a pair of seven point spurts, a final six-pack of Thompson straight points ballooned the lead to thirty at 47-17. Seward County controlled the final two minutes in outscoring the Cougars 8-1 in slicing the halftime deficit to 48-25.
De'Antray Hughes electrifying dunk from Bates' oop pass keyed an early five point stretch shortly after the halftime break to squelch any potential Saints' momentum carryover. The Cougars cruised on throughout the rest of the contest, getting another Bates to Hughes delivery for a rim shaker pushing the margin to its largest of thirty-one at 73-42 with 8:43 to play.
Keith Robinson canned a deep trey from straight-away with 3:58 left to the delight of his Australian family in attendance with Walker Moore closing out Barton's scoring with 44 ticks on the clock in burying a baseline triple from Locandro's dish for his first three-pointer in a Cougar uniform.