Playing without two starters Saturday afternoon in Dodge City, the Barton Community College men's basketball team held on late in knocking off second place Dodge City Community College 83-78.
The victory moves Barton to a half game in the win column behind the Conquistadors, improving to 7-5 in the Jayhawk West and 9-5 on the season while Dodge City slips to 8-5 in league and 9-5 overall.
Barton will have short turnaround in what will be a busy stretch of five games in nine days beginning Monday with a 7:30 p.m. tip hosting Seward County Community College.
Five of the nine suited Cougars reached double-figures with Jaheim Holden leading with 19 points, including the go-ahead three-pointer with two minutes left followed by putting the game away with a pair of late free throws and his game high fifth steal for the final margin.
Desean Munson just missed a double-double stat sheet with 17 points and team leading 9 rebounds helping Barton to a plus-five edge on the glass.
Justin Harmon scored 17 points, making a pair of pivotal plays down the stretch keeping Barton ahead on the scoreboard. Grabbing a missed Holden jumper with 1:18 remaining, Harmon's hustle play saved the possession up one, reset the offense, then slashed to the hole putting Barton back up by three with 1:03 to play.
Following a pair of missed Conquistador free throws to slash the margin, Harmon buried a huge shot clock buzzer beating trey in front of the bench pushing the gap to six with sixteen seconds on the clock.
Five seconds later Dodge City cut it back to three on a quick triple but Holden sealed the victory at the line.
Coming off the bench for 10 points each were Asanti Price and Shawn Warrior with Warrior knocking down his second triple of the game tying the back and forth second half of action at 71-all.
Dhieu Deing led all scorers on the night with 28 points, twelve coming beyond the arc on 4-of-10 shooting. Walyn Napper posted a double-double night for the Conquistadors with 16 points and 10 assists while Emmanuel Jones added 13 points off the bench