Leads are rarely safe at The Greenhouse but the 8th ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team held off the charge in winning 69-53 Saturday at Seward County Community College.
Barton scored the afternoon's first eleven points in riding to a twenty-point halftime advantage but saw the lead trimmed to seven four times before outscoring the Saints 15-6 in the final five minutes to capture its first win at the house of green since 2018.
The Cougars conclude the pre-holiday break with its third straight win improving to 6-1 in KJCCC play and 12-1 overall while Seward County falls to 1-5 in league and 3-7 on the season.
Following the long break, Barton gets back in action Wednesday, January 3rd in a 7:30 p.m. tip hosting Coffeyville Community College.
Nine Cougars scored in the contest while holding its third straight opponent to under 61 points and second straight of less than 33% shooting. The defensive performance also held the Saints to its lowest output in the series since 2004 in stretching across a span of forty-two meetings.
Barton shot 43.9% with a 22-point advantage in the paint led by Myles Thompson's 14 points on 50% shooting.
The Cougars also held a 20-point edge in bench points as Brent Moss matched Thompson with 14 points, ten coming in second half play. Moss also put on a 50% shooting performance making 7-of-14 and grabbed three of his 6 rebounds on the offensive glass including a rebound leading to Amiri Ndayisaba's second triple of the game pushing the lead to fourteen with seventy-five seconds left.
Reigning two-time KJCCC Player of the Week Lajae Jones took just eight shots, making four for a 10 point performance in just missing his third straight double-double by grabbing 9 rebounds, to go along with, a team leading 3 steals.
Cooper Jackson, who added two more thefts to his career ladder climbing, finished with 9 points including canning his lone trey halting a Saints' 6-0 run to begin second half action.
Keandre Kindell led the distributions with 5 assists, adding 5 rebounds, 5 points, a block, and a steal in his stat dotting afternoon.
Barton's three-point leader Christian Bowen-Webb keyed a Cougars' 9-0 first half run stretching the margin to seventeen with his lone trey for his 10th game of the year of making at least one arc buster.
Blessin Kimble led the Saints with 16 points, Carson Bennett added 12 points, and Lovasoa Andriatsarafara helped the Saints to a slim plus-1 on the glass with 11 rebounds.
SERIES NOTES
- Barton has won the last two meetings, both over 16 points
- Barton's first win in Liberal since January 27, 2018
- Seward County leads the series in Liberal 29-27
- Barton leads the overall series 67-47
Record Book Watch
Cooper Jackson
- 145 career steals *4th most – 2 behind Jason Carter (2000-02)