The Barton Community College men's basketball team passed a pair of tough early season tests this weekend at the Hutchinson Sports Arena competing in the BSN Sports Tipoff Classic.
On Friday, the Cougars fought off a second charge from Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa by controlling the final nine minutes for a 75-58 victory.
Needing overtime for Saturday's victory knocking off 12th ranked Odessa College, the Cougars erased an eighteen point early second half deficit for a 92-85 win, due in part to a 43 point performance from Cougar Downing for the third best single game scoring outing in program history.
Downing's big stat line checked in as the third best single game performance in now the 54th year of competition in both points scored (43), tying Juan Gay's effort in 1994, and sinking 14-of-14 from the free throw line. The fourteen made free throws also joined four others for the 9th most made in a single contest.
Improving to 3-0, the Cougars begin a four-game home stretch over the course of the next week, beginning Tuesday hosting the junior varsity squad from Kansas Wesleyan University. This coming Friday and Saturday, Barton takes on Clarendon College and McCook Community College respectively in the Best Western/Booster Club Classic. The Cougars then open up conference play next Wednesday as Garden City Community College comes to the Barton Gym. Tip-off time for each of the four contests is 7:30 p.m. with full audio and video coverage found at www.BartonSports.com.
RECAP vs NOC-Tonkawa
Barton erased NOC-Tonkawa's early and lone lead of 3-0 with seven straight getting five from Trey Bates III and an Evans Kipruto jumper. The Cougars led by three at the 13:26 media timeout before consecutive triples from Keith Robinson and Downing stretch the gap to nine over the next two minutes. Following a Maverick layup, Barton rattled off the next seven for a 14 point lead at 23-9. The Mavericks cut five off the margin but the Cougars got long-range splashdowns from Joseph Locandro, Downing, and Robinson in a 9-2 stretch late in the half, closing with another Bates and Downing's third trey of the half to build a 17 point cushion to the break.
The Mavericks chipped away at the deficit, shaving six points off the margin in the opening three minutes, before cutting the gap to six with 13:34 remaining. Following a pair of Robinson free throws, NOC grabbed the next four before Downing buried a three pointer in temporarily halting the surge. The Maverick pressure forcing 11 Barton second half turnovers and driving to the basket resulting in 15 trips to the line, erased seventeen point hole to just a two point deficit with 9:24 left.
Fouled on a three-point attempt, Hannes Saar drained all three charity tosses in a then-critical stage of the game making it a two possession game. Following an empty possession by the Mavericks, the Cougars got cranking adding four more points to the margin before consecutive Robison and Downing triples widened the lead back out to 15 in less than four minutes. The Mavericks were never able to get it back to single digits with Barton pushing the lead to twenty with 1:08 left.
Downing's 5-of-13 shooting from beyond the arc led to a game high 21 points with Bates finishing with 17 points and team high 4 assists. Robinson knocked down a trio of long range shots for 11 points while De'Antray Hughes hauled down 10 rebounds helping Barton to a 16 rebound advantage.
Elijah Pickens led NOC-Tonkawa with 19 points and 3 assists with DJ Jones adding 10 points.
RECAP vs Odessa College
Downing began his historic night dropping a pair of three-pointers to erase a 2-0 deficit. Another Downing triple would double-up the Wranglers at 12-6, a margin the Cougars would enjoy again at 11:02 mark following five straight Hutchinson product Myles Thompson including a tough And-1 conversion.
Downing's fourth rain maker kept Barton out front for their final lead coming at 25-24 but Odessa would control the remaining 4:47. Turning up the defensive pressure resulting in 13 Barton first half turnovers, Odessa closed the half outscoring the Cougars 14-4 including taking the final eight points as a three-pointer late gave the Wranglers a 38-29 lead.
Two Barton turnovers and nine straight out of the locker room increased Odessa's lead to 18 points with 18:17 remaining. The Cougars began chipping away at the deficit to a nine point gap over the next five minutes, five points coming from Downing in converting an And-1 and sinking a pair of throws following an Odessa technical foul.
Following Downing establishing a then-new career high 39 points drawing Barton to within seven with 7:30 to play, Hughes rattled off a personal 5-0 spurt including a hoop-n-harm conversion then Modibo Sanogo pick-pocketed a Wrangler in going the distance for a dunk cutting the deficit to 67-66.
Two minutes later Saar provided the equalizer, canning his lone trey of the night tying it up at 73 with 2:16 left. Each team had multiple chances for the game winner but came up empty, including Barton's last possession that left a heavily guarded Downing 19-footer missing at the buzzer.
Overtime was all Cougars as Robinson's lone trey then feeding Hughes for a transition dunk set the tone to open up the extra frame. Odessa's pair of free throws drew to within three but the Cougars outscored Odessa by four the rest of the way getting strong play from Thompson on both ends of the floor and flawless free throw shooting by Saar and Downing helped seal the early season upset.
In addition to his big scoring output in part to 7-of-13 from beyond the arc, Downing distributed a team high 5 assists. Hughes put together a career high 20 point scoring night, adding 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and two blocks to his stat line. Saar sank a perfect 8 free throws and dropped a three-pointer in contributing 11 points. Thompson came off the bench for 32 minutes of court time, nearly posting a double-double on a career high 9 points and 12 rebounds leading a plus-10 Barton edge on the boards.
Tre Richardson's 16 points led five Wranglers in double digit scoring with Daniel Rivera and BJ Francis each scoring 12, Yohamid Rodriguez adding 11 points, and Mike Rivera contributing 10. Garfield Turner grabbed a team high 10 rebounds as Dontrell Hewlett dished out a team high five assists.
Barton connected on 51% of their shots while Odessa shot 41.4%, the big difference coming from beyond the arc as both teams knocked down nine but the Cougars drained 45% of their 20 shots with the Wranglers shooting just 27.3% of their 33 launches. Barton also gained an edge at the stripe sinking 31-of-43 (72.1%), Odessa making just 18 of their 33 for 54.5%.