The Barton Community College men's basketball team placed all nine in the scoring column and utilized a key 10-2 stretch late in the second half Saturday afternoon in securing a 70-61 road victory over Cloud County Community College
The victory gives the Cougars a season split with the T-Birds as Barton improves to 7-10 in the Jayhawk Conference and 13-10 overall while the loss drops Cloud County to 6-11 in league play and 11-13 overall.
The Cougars will return home for a pair of midweek games with the first coming Monday night at 7:00 p.m. in a men's only game against Colby Community College before concluding its brief two game homestead Wednesday night in a 7:30 p.m. tip against Pratt Community College.
Leading Barton in double-digits was Trey Bates III's career high 19 point day, burying 3-of-5 from beyond the arch and pulling down six rebounds. Cougar Downing added 13 points in 27 minutes as the sophomore saw his streak of five straight games of plus 20-points come to an end while battling early first half foul trouble. Modibo Sanogo came off the bench finishing two points shy of a double-double while pulling down a game high 10 rebounds in leading Barton to a plus four edge in rebounds.
Cloud County finished with four in double figures as Nate Duckworth, Malang Athiam, Savian Edwards and Zion Obanla each finished with 11 points.
RECAP
Trailing for just 3:16 early in the first half, the Cougars operated a 10-0 run ignited by a pair of Evans Kipruto buckets mixed amongst long distance splashes from Cougar Downing and Trey Bates III handing Barton the lead over the final 36:28.
Nourishing the lead between three and five over the next six minutes, a 4-0 T-Bird stretch trimmed the Cougar lead to one before lay-ups by Sanogo and Bates III delivered the response pushing the lead back to two-possessions.
Barton would grasp its' largest lead of the half in the final 1:20 as a pair of Josh Jordan tosses and Bates III's second ringing from long distance with 26-ticks left sent the Cougars into the locker room up nine at 34-25.
Ensuing a Cloud County 1-of-2 trip at the line to start the second half, Kipruto generated Barton's first double-digit lead at 36-26 with 17:45 to go. Just a minute and half-later Kipruto's second straight bucket trailed by a Keith Robinson bang from long distance delivered the largest lead for the Cougars at 41-30.
Remaining in front between six and 10 points over the next five minutes, Cloud County would make a push closing to within 50-49 with 5:11 remaining as a Athian layup on the inbounds with two-seconds left on the shot clock ignited a 7-0 T-Birds run capped by one of Edwards three trifectas.
Scoreless over a plus three-minute stretch, Bates III delivered the answer for Barton canning his third outside shot during a personal 5-0 response and 7-0 Cougar run with succeeding a Sanogo cleanup layup pushing the lead back to eight with 3:36 to go.
Cloud County closed within six at 60-54 with 1:20 remaining but Barton was nearly perfect over the final 55-ticks sinking 12-of-14 from the charity stripe holding off any T-Bird rally.