A five point halftime lead dissolved in second half play Saturday as the Barton Community College men's basketball team's upset bid of 7th ranked Triton College fell short 89-83.
Both teams went 1-1 during the weekend's BSN Sports Tipoff Classic held at the Hutchinson Sports Arena, Barton now stands at 2-1 headed into this week's trio of home contests while Triton returns to Illinois also at 2-1 on the year.
On Tuesday the Cougars host Neosho County Community College followed by Friday and Saturday games in the Best Western/Cougar Booster Club Classic taking on Wilbur Wright College and Victoria College respectively. A 7:30 p.m. tipoff slated for each of the three contests with live stream audio and video coverage available on the Barton Sports Network found at www.BartonSports.com.
Barton built its first half lead late following the Trojans' sixth three-pointer of the opening frame by scoring the final four points for a 36-31 edge.
Stretching its lead to eight with 18:41 remaining, the Cougars weren't able to hold off the Trojans in the next four minutes with Triton canning a pair a treys and converting another fouled three-point made turning into a four-point play resulting in a one-point deficit.
Having seven ties and twelve lead changes, the last came at the 14:02 mark as a 6-0 run flipped the momentum with another Trojan three-pointer later for Triton's largest lead of ten coming with 11:52 remaining.
Chipping away at the deficit in the next five minutes to drawn within two with 6:56 remaining and just one point with 4:39 left, Barton couldn't get over the hump to take over the lead as a pair of costly turnovers and another fouled three point shot helped Triton push the gap back to nine with ninety seconds remaining.
The Cougars had another charge left in them though as consecutive Downing-Rivers buckets and an Amiri Ndayisaba steal and free throws cut the gap to four with 44 ticks on the clock. Having one last chance to cut even further in the deficit with 25 seconds left, a 1-of-2 trip to the line by Hannes Saar would be the last Barton points as Triton sank a pair of tosses with eighteen seconds for the final six point margin.
Joseph Locandro again led the Cougars in scoring, putting up 16 of his 20 points in first half action but having his double-double streak to open the season coming to an end in corralling a team high 8 rebounds. Downing-Rivers assembled his third straight all-around game with another triple-double flirtation in scoring 18 points on 50% shooting, grabbing 7 rebounds, and dishing out 9 assists. Saar also grabbed 7 rebounds while adding 14 points and Cougar Downing added 11 points behind a perfect eight tosses from the charity stripe.
Barton made seven more field goals that Triton from the field as just one percentage point separated the team's accuracy. The Trojans had the advantage on nine additional three-pointers made to offset Barton's plus-7 edge on the boards including plus-7 on the offensive glass and twenty-eight point advantage in the paint.
Devon Barnes led all scorers, helping the Triton's plus-11 from the free throw line in sinking 20-of-23 and canning 6-of-8 from beyond the arc for 40 points. Brandon Muntu was the only other Trojan in double digits by draining 5-of-8 from deep for 17 points.