The Barton Community College men's basketball team got off to a great start Wednesday evening on the road but needed a better second half beginning to break open the game in cruising to an 81-61 victory at Colby Community College.
Following a Colby free throw to begin the night's scoring, the Cougars went on a 13-0 run in grabbing the lead it would never relinquish. Leading by six at the break, Barton held the Trojans scoreless the first four minutes on the second half, piling on another thirteen straight to break it open, stretching the lead to as many as twenty-five in cruising to their fourth straight in the series.
Barton improves to 6-5 in conference and 11-6 overall while Colby drops to 1-10 in league play and 4-13 on the season.
The Cougars conclude the first trip around the conference slate on Saturday in welcoming the 8th ranked Conquistadors of Dodge City Community College to the Barton Gym in a 4:00 p.m. tip-off.
Hannes Saar matched his career high 20 points to lead ten Cougars scoring five or more points in the contest. Saar buried 3-of-4 beyond the arc, all three coming within a seventy-eight second span, and threw down a pair of baseline dunks in going 8-of-11 from the field.
Saar was the lone Cougar to reach double-figures as Joseph Locandro came up shy of a double-double with 9 points and 9 rebounds in limited court time to help Barton to a plus-10 edge on the boards and a plus-16 point second chance point advantage.
Three Cougars finished with eight points led by the all-around performance by Mozae Downing-Rivers' flirtation with a triple-double in scoring 8 points, grabbing 8 rebounds, and dishing out 6 assists. Aime Rutayisire and Howard Johnson came off the bench to also add 8 points each, Johnson canning two treys as the duo helped Barton to a plus-9 point advantage from bench contributions.
Joshua O'Garro led the Trojans with 20 points, Jaxon Pillich dumped in 17 points off the bench, with Mike Bell adding in 10 points.
Barton shot well on the night at 45.1%, snapping a five-game streak of sub-par shooting, including 9-of-21 (42.9%) from beyond the arc while Colby was held to 38.8% from the field, 4-of-20 from deep, but tallied nineteen points from the free throw line on 73% shooting.
The Trojans opened the evening's scoring with a 1-of-2 trip to the line, going scoreless the next four minutes as Cougar Downing's triple led a 13-0 Barton run to take the lead for good.
As Barton went to its bench with a fresh five, Colby began a move in the next five minutes to draw within one at 17-16 with 11:33 left. Holding off the Trojans in taking the lead, Cooper Jackson's jumper ended Barton's six minute span without a field goal with Rutayisire following a possession later to widen the lead back to five.
Two points were as close as Colby would come the rest of the night as Barton outscored the Trojans in the final five minutes to lead 34-28 at the halftime break.
One of the top defensive teams in the region, Barton again clamped down to begin second frame play, holding Colby without a point for four minutes while putting together another 13-0 run in blowing open the contest.
Consecutive triples by Johnson put Barton over the twenty-point margin with 12:25 play as the lead grew to twenty-five with 9:22 left and again with 7:58 remaining on a short Stefan Spray jumper.
Colby tried to creep back in to the contest on a 9-2 spurt with five minutes to play but Christian Bowen-Webb's triple with Saar's three-point outburst two minutes later pushing the gap back to twenty-four with two minutes left.