It took thirty-one minutes Wednesday night in Goodland, Kansas, for the Barton Community College men's basketball team to get crank up as the Cougars built a twelve point lead in holding off Northwest Kansas Technical College 74-67.
The third straight victory keeps the Cougars in striking distance of the conference race improving to 4-4 while climbing over the .500 mark since early in the season at 5-4. NW Tech is left searching for its first win falling to 0-9 in both conference and on the year.
The Cougars will look to continue its streak on Saturday in a 4:00 tip-off hosting Pratt Community College.
Justin Harmon tied a career high 26 points to lead the Cougars with Jaheim Holden's late spark off the bench contributed a big 12 points. Evans Kipruto also had a big game off the bench with 12 points while helping the Cougars' rebound edge in hauling down a team high seven rebounds.
Jacari Chambers paced NW Tech with 12 points with Malik Lacewell adding 11 points.
RECAP
Barton trailed by six in scoring just four points through the opening four minutes before stringing eleven straight while holding NW Tech to a five minute scoring drought to build a 15-10 lead.
The margin grew to seven behind consecutive Kipruto buckets including a two-hand follow-up rim bender. NW Tech sliced it back to four before Willie Lapoole's three-pointer keyed a 7-0 run giving Barton its largest lead of the half coming at 26-15 with 7:32 remaining.
The Mavericks countered with the next six, outscoring Barton 13-5 in drawing to within three with two minutes left in the half.
Leading 33-29 into halftime, Barton came out flat while the Mavericks played with more juice to outscore Barton 12-8 to tie it up at 41-all.
Three minutes later NW Tech matched its largest lead of six, stringing seven straight for a 51-45 advantage.
Coming out of a Barton timeout with 9:08 to play, Barton owned the next two minutes behind an 11-0 run to surge out front for good.
Enter Holden in squelching any Maverick comeback attempt, the sophomore found Desean Munson for a key inside bucket and a possession later drained a trey as NW Tech cut the deficit to four with 4:40 remaining.
Harmon also provided key play down the stretch, playing with four fouls but drawing a Maverick player control foul before sinking a perfect four charity tosses down the stretch after NW Tech drew back to within six with a minute remaining.