The 9th ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team had its hands full for thirty minutes Saturday afternoon at the Barton Gym before pulling away from Dodge City Community College 95-75 for its third straight win in the series.
In a spirited first half play of action containing thirty-three fouls and six technical fouls resulting in thirty-seven free throws, Barton led by as much as thirteen before settling in for a six point halftime edge.
As play settled down and both teams combining for 98 second half points, it was the Cougars who stood the test of time in outscoring the Conquistadors by twenty-three points in the final thirteen minutes.
Dodge City had erased the Cougars halftime lead canning three of their ten made three-pointers in the second half's first six minutes to open up a 51-48 advantage with 13:38 remaining.
Beginning with Mozae Downing-Rivers' trey to tie it up and following a Dodge City bucket to jump back ahead for the last time, Cooper Jackson and Ring Malith went back-to-back from long range as the Cougars would never trail again in rolling on to victory.
Coupled with Cowley College's loss at Cloud County, the Cougars move into a tie atop the conference standings at 9-1 and 15-1 overall while the loss dips the Conquistadors to 5-6 in league and 7-10 overall.
Barton will put its six-game win streak on the line Wednesday evening at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in a 7:30 p.m. tip against 17th ranked Hutchinson Community College.
Jackson's triple led to a 9 point afternoon but his consecutive steals led to a pair of transition buckets in a span of fifteen seconds pushing the margin to thirteen with 3:16 remaining to all but seal the contest. Pushing his career total to 152 thefts, Jackson moved into the 2nd all-time slot in program history behind the phenomenal 319 recorded by Eric Bush (1999-01).
Myles Thompson led four Cougars in double-figure scoring finishing with a game high 21 points helping Barton to a plus 24-point advantage in the paint.
As ten Cougars reached the scoring column, Brent Moss and Keandre Kindell combined for thirty-three of Barton's forty-four points off the bench leading Barton to a plus-17 point advantage from the reserves.
Moss, who benefitted from multiple dimes from Downing-Rivers leading to dunks, finished with 17 points and 7 rebounds while Kindell added 16 points in connecting on 2-of-3 from behind the arc and dished out 3 assists.
Rounding out the double-digit scoring, Ring Malith supplied 14 points, going 2-of-5 from long distance and grabbed 6 rebounds helping Barton to a plus-14 rebound advantage.
Downing-Rivers again turned in an all-around floor game, dishing out a game high 9 assists with multiple thread-the-needle dimes, while creating 5 steals, securing 4 rebounds, and adding the big momentum turning three-ball.
Four Conquistadors finished with double-digit performances led by Chevalier "Ice" Emer's 15 points. Gavin Shannon added 13 points and 7 rebounds while Tyree Jackson and Avnoor Bhullar each contributed 12 points apiece.
SERIES NOTES
- Barton has won the last 3 meetings
- Barton has won the last 2 games in Great Bend
- Barton leads the series 41-15 in Great Bend
- Barton leads the overall series 71-40
Record Book Watch
Cooper Jackson
- 152 career steals *2nd most – surpassed LaKeith Humphrey (1986-88), 167 behind Eric Bush's 319 (1999-01)