The Barton Community College men's basketball team broke a mid-opening half tie with solid defense in controlling the final thirty minutes of a 107-76 victory over Victoria College to wrap up the weekend's Best Western Angus Inn and Cougar Booster Club Classic

The Cougars improve to 5-1 on the season while Victoria drops to 0-5 on the year.

Barton will now turn its sights on conference play beginning with a trip on Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. tip at Garden City Community College.

Tied at 14 at the 13:26 mark, Barton put twenty-three points on the home scoreboard and limited Victoria to just one field goal for over eight minutes to build a 37-21 lead with 5:19 remaining in the half. The Cougars then set the tone coming out of the locker room for second half play, opening the frame with a 9-0 run to eventually crossing the century mark for the third time of the season on Stefan Spray's first collegiate trey coming from the top of the key with 2:57 remaining.

Joseph Locandro's fourth double-double of the year paced the Cougars, pouring in 22 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Mozae Downing-Rivers match his career high with 18 points, Hannes Saar dropped 2-of-3 behind the arc for 14 points, and Cougar Downing added 12 points as the trio were 5-of-11 behind the arc and distributed 13 of the team's 23 assists.

Four Pirates reached double figures led by Markhi Strickland's 18 points. Elijah "EJ" Smith added 15 points on 4-of-11 three-point shooting, Michael Hawkins added 14 points, and Chandler Collins-Johnson contributing 10 points.