8th ranked Cougars utilize balanced scoring in 96-75 win at Pratt #GoBarton

Balanced scoring aided by defensive tenacity set the tone Tuesday evening at the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena as the 8th ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team rolled to a 96-75 win at Pratt Community College.

The Cougars scored the opening six points in never trailing, stretching the lead to seventeen in first half action before a 12-0 early spurt out of the locker room put the Beavers in the taillights in leading by as much as thirty-points for its second straight win on Pratt's floor.

Barton's second consecutive win to begin the conference slate improves to 8-0 on the season while Pratt drops to 0-2 in league and 2-4 overall.

The Cougars conclude their two-game road stretch through the holiday week on Saturday in a 4:00 p.m. contest at 24th ranked Cloud County.

Shooting over 70% for a good portion of the first half, Barton cooled off to finish at a season high 59.7% including 17-of-20 from the free throw line.

Nine Cougars hit the scoring column with five in double figures led by Lajae Jones 19 points and 8 rebounds. Jones scored seven of his points in Barton's first half 11-2 stretch helping to build the team's first seventeen point lead coming with 9:14 remaining.

Myles Thompson joined Jones in first half double-figures by scoring 12 of his 18 points in the opening twenty minutes and finished with 6 rebounds.

Leading Barton's 12 steals on the night, Cooper Jackson came up with four thefts and 15 points, going perfect on six shots from the floor including an early trey sparking a 5-0 spurt after Pratt closed to within 8-6.

Two players came off the bench for a double-figure night. Amiri Ndayisaba knocked down his first of two treys on the night in halting Pratt's four straight triples with 4:02 left squelching the Beavers' cutting the deficit to eighteen with his second coming two minutes later as the sophomore finished with a career high 12 points.

Brent Moss also provided a scoring punch off the bench with 10 points, adding a bucket contributing to Barton's big first half stretch then dumping in eight more in second half action in part to grabbing three of his 6 rebounds from the offensive glass.

Ring Malith had timely buckets contributing to his 8 points while Mozae Downing-Rivers continued his unselfish play in dishing out 6 of the team's 14 assists and added another 6 points to the total.

The Beavers, who shot 49% from the field including 10-of-18 from long range, had three players in double-digits led by Caleb Smith's 20 points with Jarrett Dingle and Kayvontay Williams each contributing 13 points.

RECAP
After Pratt banged a pair of three-pointers in closing Barton's early lead to 8-6, Jackson's triple followed by Malith's bucket pushed the margin back out with the Beavers' next bucket drawing the home team to its closest for the remaining thirty-five minutes of five points.

Thompson's jumper and Keandre Kindell's lone three-pointer of the night opened a ten point gap before Jones' seven of Barton's next eleven helped build the initial of six first half seventeen point leads.

Pratt closed the opening half with the last three points before tacking on six more out of the locker room in slicing the gap to eight.

Jones' old fashioned three-point play halted the run, and following a Pratt bucket, was joined by Jackson in putting up ten of the Cougars' 12-0 run in breaking open the game with a twenty-one point margin.

The Beavers strung six straight near the midway point but it would be the last time the margin was under the twenty point mark as Downing-Rivers, Thompson, and Ndayisaba led a six point answer.

Barton would later hang another nine straight for its largest lead of thirty at 83-53 with seven minutes left.

In three minutes, twelve points came off the lead from Pratt's four straight three-pointers with Ndayisaba being the spoiler in canning his first trey as Barton rode out the remaining four minutes for its largest victory in the series' past two seasons.

SERIES NOTES
- Barton has won the last two at Pratt and last three in the series
- Largest margin of victory sincle March 6, 2021
- Barton leads the series 35-20 at Pratt
- Barton leads the overall series 80-34