The hot shooting Barton Community College men's basketball team put up record setting performances Saturday night at the Barton Gym to win its third straight by defeating Cloud County Community College 84-74. Getting redemption of an earlier season loss at Cloud, the Cougars struck for a record setting 70% shooting performance from behind the arc going 14-of-20 to record the single game percentage record. Freshman Deriece Parks played a huge part in the performance knocking down a record tying 80% of his deep shots to finish 8-of-10 and tie for the third most three-point makes in a single game. Leading the Barton charts with nine in a single game are Dennan Morrow ('10) and Gordon Scott ('98). Barton's victory to improve to 18-7 overall and 6-3 in conference play, coupled with Hutchinson's loss to Seward County, puts the Cougars in a position to vie for the conference title with five games remaining. However, Barton must first get past Pratt Community College at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday at the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena. The Cougars will also be looking for a little revenge as the Beavers, 15-9 overall and a half game behind Barton for third in the conference at 5-3, won 83-80 earlier in the conference season at the Barton Gym.
Deriece Parks' career high twenty-six points led four Cougars in double-digit scoring. Parks finished 9-of-12 from the field and led Barton in steals with two. Leading the Barton offense from the point, Tyler Corley scored eighteen while dishing out six assists. Trey Unrau came off the bench to score eleven points knocking down 3-of-4 from behind the arc including burying two back-to-back big time treys to keep the Thunderbirds at bay and helped seal the win with two late clutch free throws. Raheem Johnson scored seven while Johnson's back-up, freshman Rashawn Walker led the Cougars with eight rebounds and a thunderous one-handed dunk in the waning seconds of the first half giving Barton a seven point intermission advantage.
The duo of Shaun Stewart and Lorenzo Dillard led Cloud County in scoring with a combined fifty of the T-birds 74 points and accounting for all seven of Cloud's buckets behind the arc. Stewart led all scorers with thirty-one by knocking down 4-of-7 behind the arc and sinking 9-of-9 from the charity stripe. Dillard led Cloud County with five assists and four steals while adding nineteen points on 3-of-7 from long range and 6-of-8 from the free throw line. Creighton Brinker led the T-birds in rebounding with eight including six on the offensive glass.