For the second time in three days, the Barton Community College men's basketball team came out victorious over Colby Community College, traveling to the Trojans' home court of the Community Building Sunday afternoon in holding on for a 70-65 win.
The victory, with the addition of Monday's forfeited win at Seward County, improves the Cougars to 10-7 in conference and 11-7 on the season with Colby dropping to 4-6 in both conference and overall.
Due to Seward County having to forfeit Monday's rescheduled contest from earlier in the season, the Cougars' next game is Wednesday in hosting Northwest Kansas Technical College in a 7:30 p.m. tip at the Barton Gym.
Willie Lapoole came off the bench to lead all scorers with his third double-double of the year, knocking down 3-of-4 beyond the arc for 16 points and hauling down 13 rebounds. The effort helped Barton to a plus-18 on the glass as Lapoole grabbed four of the Cougars 13 offensive rebounds.
Jaheim Holden dished out five assists to lead all players, adding 15 points to the Cougars' total including clutch free throw shooting down the stretch in finishing 8-of-9 from the stripe.
In his third start in a Cougar uniform, Evans Kipruto's thirty-one minutes nearly produced a double-double with 14 points and 8 rebounds with three shot rejectors.
Making the most of his second consecutive start, Shawn Warrior knocked down 2-of-3 behind the arc on the way to recording his first collegiate double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Asanti Price rounded out the double figure scoring with 10 points, sinking 4-of-4 from the stripe as the Cougars shot over 80% from the line in six of the last eight games, finishing 15-of-18 (83.3%)
Five Colby players reached double digits, Domonic Harvey leading the way with 13 points with Tyrone Marshall and Jayrese Williams adding 12 points each. Rasheet Wilson contributed 11 points while Matt McFarlane put up 10 points.
RECAP
Barton broke away from a 12-all tie with five straight, adding two more following a technical on Colby's bench. The margin grew to nine with seven to play with Colby slicing into the deficit late in the half to trail 35-30 to the locker room.
Following a Trojan bucket to open the final twenty minutes, Barton built their lead to fifteen in the first five minutes as Warrior drained a trey then later blocked a shot on defensive end and converted a transition layup on the other. Warrior completed the 15-4 Barton stretch putting away Holden's pass for an easy back door tip-in at the rim.
Following Lapoole's fourth three-pointer putting Barton up 58-45 at the 9:38 media timeout, the Trojans took off a big chunk of the deficit in the next seven minutes with a 12-2 run drawing to within three.
Barton came up empty on their next possession but Holden provided the equalizer in drawing a big offensive charge for the defensive stop.
The Cougars scored the next four points in the ensuing thirty seconds with Lapoole's offensive put back on Barton's next possession proving large, securing the defensive rebound on a Colby miss, with Kipruto pushing the lead to 64-57 on a tough inside low block move.
The Trojans buried a trey with 46 seconds left cutting the gap to four and later to just three with 13.3 seconds to play but Holden connected on 6-of-7 from the free throw line in the final 37 seconds to preserve the victory.