Getting a plus-23 point advantage from its bench play, the Barton Community College men's basketball team grinded out a 92-86 victory Friday afternoon over Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in day one of the BSN Sports Tipoff Classic held at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
Improving to 2-0, Barton will have its biggest test of the early season in taking on 7th ranked Triton College at 3:00 p.m. Saturday. The Trojans, ranked 7th in the nation after finishing in the top four at the national tournament last season, dropped to 1-1 on the year following a 113-105 shootout loss to host and 13th ranked Hutchinson Community College in closing out the Classic's first day. NEO, now 1-1 on the year, will take on the Blue Dragons in the 7:30 p.m. final game of the Classic
Joseph Locandro's second double-double to start the season led the Cougars with career highs of 23 points and 12 rebounds including six boards from the offensive glass. Cougar Downing's 5-of-7 second half timely long-range shooting contributed to a 19 point night while adding a game high six assists. Leading the 31 point production off the Cougar bench, Howard Johnson buried all three of his triples helping Barton enjoy a three point halftime advantage to finish the afternoon with 10 points.
Barton canned five three pointers in each of the halves, recovering from a 36% first half shooting with an improved near 47% in the final twenty minutes in finishing at just shy of 41% for the game.
Aided by Hannes Saar's 10 rebounds, the Cougars held a plus-13 edge on the glass and canned 28 of their 38 free throw attempts for 73.7% stripe shooting.
All five starters for the Norsemen reached double figures but could only muster eight points from its bench. TJ Morris led with 22 points on 3-of-4 beyond the arc shooting with Julian Mackey not far behind with 19 points. Myles Samuels posted a double-double 14 points and 12 rebounds, Kelvin Spruill had 12 points with a game high four steals, and Always Wright added 11 points to round out the top scorers.
NEO shot well from the floor at 47.5%, 8-of-23 from long distance and 22-of-34 from the stripe, but were statistically a combined twelve points behind the Cougars in three-pointers and free throws.