Rolling out to a hot start the Barton Community College men's basketball team led wire-to-wire Monday night at the Barton Gym for a 93-80 victory over Pratt Community College.
The Cougars buried consecutive three-pointers to begin the game for an 8-0 start, drilling their first five beyond the arc leading to a 16-point halftime lead. Pushing the margin out to as much as 25, the Cougars never allowed Pratt any closer than 12 to split the season's pair of meetings and snap the Beavers' two straight wins in the series.
Victors of three straight, Barton improves to 9-10 in conference play and 15-10 overall while Pratt's third straight loss drops the Beavers to 6-12 in league and 11-13 on the season.
Barton next heads to El Dorado on Saturday for a 4:00 p.m. tip at Butler Community College.
Trey Bates III led all players with a career high 32 point night, shooting 69% from the floor including dropping 5-of-6 beyond the arc. Cougar Downing, who drained three of his four three-pointers in the opening four minutes, scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half action while dishing out a game high four assists and grabbing a team high eight rebounds. Evans Kipruto added 14 points with six rebounds and a pair of blocks and steals while Modibo Sanogo came off the bench to grab seven rebounds, score 13 points, and reject six Pratt attempts.
Nasan Ayala put up double-double numbers to lead the Beavers scoring 23 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Tommy Thomas was close behind with 22 points with D.J. Bailey adding 11 points off the bench to round out the top Beaver scorers.
For the second straight game Barton shot better from long distance than within the arc, connecting on 10-of-21 treys for 47.6% in finishing 41.8% overall. Pratt also shot better from deep on 7-of-21 connections on their 31.1% night.
The Beavers hauled down 20 offensive rebounds for just a four point second chance advantage as Barton won the war on the boards for the 20th time of the season outrebounding Pratt 52-47.
RECAP
Downing and Bates dropped consecutive threes to spark the Cougars 8-0 start, combining for 6-of-9 beyond the arc and 29-points in the opening half. The duo later sank three straight in building the lead to 21-7 in the first five minutes.
The margin hovered around double-digits through the next ten minutes, Pratt drawing to within eight a pair of times, answered by another Downing three-ball and later by a pair of Bates free throws leading an 8-0 run in closing out first half action.
Barton started off slow in the second half but the defense helped hold the margin at 12. Nine straight with four-point contribution from Kipruto, a Bates trey, and a pair of Downing charity tosses stretched the gap to 19 but the Beavers fired back with nine straight of their own including canning a pair of treys shrinking the gap back at the midway point.
Bates took over the next three minutes, burying a pair of treys including a step-back variety, putting up 11 points in Barton's backbreaking 15-5 stretch building their largest lead of 25 at 81-56 with 7:41 left.
The large lead was short lived as Pratt rattled off the next 10-points over two minutes with Sanogo's 1-of-2 trip to the line ending the Cougars' 2.5 minute scoring drought. Sanogo added eight more points in the ensuing three minutes including burying his first collegiate three-pointer for the top of the key with 2:29 remaining.
Walker Moore tallied the Cougars' final points of the night going 3-of-4 from the stripe as Pratt outscored the Cougars 8-4 in the remaining two minutes including dropping a trey at the buzzer.
Saddled with an injury since January 17th, De'Antray Hughes made a return to the lineup contributing a 1-of-2 trip to the line, grabbing two boards, and dishing out an assist in eleven minutes of action.