Fifteen unanswered points to begin Wednesday night's contest at the Barton Gym set the tone as the Barton Community College men's basketball team blew out Dodge City Community College 97-74. The victory keep Barton tied atop the Jayhawk standings at 7-1 improving to 11-1 on the season while sending Dodge City to its fourth straight defeat in dropping to 3-5 in conference and 5-6 on the year. The Cougars conclude the fall portion of the schedule on Saturday as Barton travels to No. 6 ranked Hutchinson Community College (7-1, 11-1) in a 7:30 p.m. tip-off at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
Keshon Montague begin the scoring outburst knocking down a trey as the Cougars would cause two Dodge City timeouts in jumping out to an 11-0 lead. Barton tacked on four more points before the Conquistadors were able to get on the board at the 14:40 mark but the Cougars reeled off another twelve straight exploding the score out to 27-2 through the contest's first eleven minutes.
Barton went on to lead by thirty-five point into halftime at 56-21, having its margin shaved down by an 8-2 Conquistador spurt. Roy Broomfield knocked down his first collegiate three-pointer, draining a corner pocket trey from Tyrell Andrews dish before coming up with a steal and transition layup to double-up the Conquistadors 72-36 with 13:10 to play. From there the Cougars put it on cruise control, mixing in all in uniform, going on to the twenty-three point victory.
Five Cougars landed in double figures with eleven hitting the scoring column. Montague's season high nineteen points led the way behind 3-of-5 shooting behind the arc. Reigning conference player of the week Kawanise Wilkins posted his third straight double-double as he and Elijah Ford put up fourteen point and ten rebound efforts each. Noah Webster added thirteen off the bench while Marvin Cannon added ten to go along with securing seven defensive rebounds.
Justice Dixon led four Conquistadors in double digits with fourteen points while dishing out a game high eight dimes. Ishawn Murphy knocked down three second half trey on the way to a twelve point night with Tajae Anderson and Bruce Hodges contributing eleven and ten respectively off the bench.
Next up for Barton will be the defending national champions as the Blue Dragons have won six straight including a buzzer beating 82-81 comeback win at Butler Community College. Trailing by twenty-six Wednesday night, Hutchinson capped the program's largest come from behind victory on J.J. Rhymes' 41st point of the night.
Other Game Notes:
- Barton now leads the overall series 60-38 and 35-14 at the Barton Gym
- Barton's 97 points was the fourth highest output this season behind games of 110, 105, and 102
- Dodge City's 74 field goal attempts with 34 coming beyond the arc were the most against the Cougars this season
- Barton launched just 17 three-pointers Wednesday night, the season second lowest to 16 against Butler on Nov. 18
- Dodge City's Justice Dixon distributed eight assists, an individual's most against the Cougars this season