The Barton Community College men's basketball team came up short Saturday night at Nellis Hall, falling 61-60 at Coffeyville Community College. The loss drops the second place Cougars to 18-7 in Jayhawk play and 27-7 overall while Coffeyville keeps its hopes for the region's fourth seed alive improving to 14-11 and 18-11 on the year. Owning a one game lead for the second spot in the upcoming playoffs, the Cougars will seek to wrap up the seed in the regular season finale on Monday with a 7:30 p.m. tip hosting Neosho County Community College.
Battling from behind all night, the Cougars took their first lead with 2:35 remaining on Jahlil Rawley's three-pointer but the Red Ravens answered the call twelve seconds later burying their own long ball. The teams then traded missed opportunities the next time down the floor before Ezekiel Charles drained his second trey of the game putting Barton back out front with forty-four seconds to play.
Travis Washington regained the Red Ravens lead on a pair of free throws with thirty-one ticks on the clock leaving Barton with the last possession opportunity. Not finding what it wanted in the offensive set, the Cougars called time out to set up the play but Charles deep trey from the wing was the best they could muster as it rimmed out with the Cougars forced to foul the rebound with 2.1 seconds remaining. Taylor Jordan's first charity toss was off the mark with the second being intentionally missed as Charles secured the rebound and immediately called timeout with 1.6 left. Following a Barton timeout, Malik Toppin's receipt of the inbounds and ensuing pass to Malik Rhodes was not quite quick enough as Rhodes' game winning attempt didn't beat the buzzer as it rimmed out nonetheless.
Charles' fifteen points led just three Cougars in double figures with Keeshawn Palmer's thirteen off the bench and Toppin's twelve combining for forty of the sixty points. Charles and Palmer each collected eight boards to lead a Barton eight rebound edge while Rawley distributed a game high seven assists.
Washington led the Red Ravens with fifteen points, nine coming from behind the arc on 3-of-7 shooting, while sinking 6-of-6 from the charity stripe. Greg Poleon added twelve with a team high seven boards while Taylor dropped eleven from off the bench including going 3-of-5 from long range. Mike Cubbage led the team with six assists.