The Barton Community College men's basketball team knocked down a season high twelve three-pointers Wednesday evening at the Barton Gym in a 74-55 victory over Cloud County Community College.
Canning seven of the triples leading to a six point halftime advantage, the Cougars canned another five in the final half to add another thirteen point differential on the scoreboard in salvaging the season series. Outscoring the T-Birds from beyond the arc, Barton helped offset its ten point deficit in the paint by forcing 27 turnovers resulting in a plus-18 point margin.
The victory keeps Barton in a two-way tie with Garden City for fourth place at 11-7, improving to 16-8 on the year, while Cloud County slides into a battle for seventh place at 8-10 and 12-12 overall.
In striking distance of the Cougars in the standings is Barton's next opponent, the Beavers of Pratt Community College as the two square off 4:00 p.m. Saturday in Pratt.
Leading Barton in scoring were the Downing cousins as the duo combined for eight of the triples and 39 points. Cougar Downing canned six in the contest, four coming in first half action, adding 7-of-9 from the charity stripe for 27 points. The performance marked the fourth straight and fifth of the last six contests on reaching the 20-point mark, vaulting the sophomore into the 1000 point two-year total on his home floor. Mozae Downing-Rivers finished with 12 points, burying both his treys in the game's first twelve minutes, while leading the squad with 9 rebounds and 4 assists.
Ring Malith finished with 9 points off the bench, sparking Barton's 8-0 run midway through the second half, scoring five points in the stretch including his second triple to give the Cougars a thirteen point cushion with 11:35 remaining.
Cooper Jackson drained his lone trey of the night thirty-five seconds out of the halftime intermission, finishing with 9 points, to go along with 4 rebounds and 4 more steals for the nation's leader.
Wednesday also saw the return of Joseph Locandro, back from a five-game injury hiatus, to bury a three-pointer erasing Cloud County's lone 13-12 lead in contributing 8 points to the total in twelve minutes of court time.
Ja'Ron Briggs, Jr., came off the bench for 16 points to lead three T-Birds in double digit scoring, Joe Kearney adding 13 points, and Corey Sawyer adding 11 points and a team high 8 rebounds.
Downing opened the evening's scoring dropping a pair of arc busters putting Barton out early with Downing Rivers following a T-Bird bucket with his first triple in helping the Cougars roll out to a 12-2 lead.
The offense dried up for the ensuing five minutes, the T-Birds taking advantage in rattling off the next eleven points before Locandro's trey flipped the lead spark Barton's seven point stretch for a 19-13 mid-point advantage. The margin grew to nine following Locandro's bucket and Downing's third triple with 5:58 left, holding steady for the next three minutes until six straight by Cloud County was answered by Downing fourth long ball sending the Cougars to the locker room up six.
After Cloud County chipped away at the margin to draw with five with 13:31 to play, Malith's five points and Hannes Saar's steal and layup in the next two minutes pushed the gap back to thirteen.
Barton grew the margin to 21 points with 2:05 left following a 15-4 seven-minute stretch highlighted by Jackson's steal and layup and the last two of Downing's six treys.