It took five minutes of action for the 3rd ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team to catch its stride before running away with a 100-72 Hall of Fame Night victory over Pratt Community College.
Trailing just once at 8-7 with 4:18 off the clock, Barton outscored the Beavers by twenty-one the rest of the half behind 7-of-14 shooting behind the arc.
Fending off a pair of Pratt early second half bursts cutting the deficit to thirteen, the Cougars responded with its own bursts pushing the gap back hovering the twenty point mark before taking its margin to its largest at twenty-eight late in the contest.
Barton shot 52.3% from the floor on the night, knocking down a season high 13-of-24 long range shots for 54.2% while Pratt was a solid 43.1% from the field but made six less shots including five less from three-point land in 8-of-22 shooting.
Winners of ten straight, Barton remains tied atop the conference standings at 10-1 and 19-1 on the year while Pratt drops to 4-10 in league and 6-13 overall.
Next up is another home game on Wednesday hosting fifth place Cloud County Community College in a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.
Ten Cougars hit the scoring book with Ring Malith leading four in double figures with 20 points on 50% shooting including 4-of-7 behind the arc while also leading with a career high 5 steals.
Lajae Jones added 17 points and 8 rebounds in just nineteen minutes of play, scoring the game's first three points in front of his father and newly Hall of Fame inductee Jackie Jones and 2003 Hall of Fame inductee Dan McGovern sitting nearby courtside.
Outscoring Pratt by twenty points in bench production, Brent Moss put 13 points towards the differential with a team leading 10 rebounds for his 4th double-double of the year helping the Cougars to a plus-6 advantage on the glass.
The team dished out 22 assists on their 34 made buckets, four coming from Keandre Kindell off the bench and adding 9 points with Christian Bowen-Webb also contributing 9 points on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc.
Starters Cooper Jackson and Mozae Downing-Rivers also dished out four dimes each, Jackson adding 10 points and two steals with Downing-Rivers scoring 5 points including a step-back triple halting one of Pratt's early second half surges.
Pratt had a trio of Beavers reaching double figures led by the 19 points from Davonte "Bubba" Russ. Deon McLaughlin was close behind with 18 points as Zion Cruz ended the night with 11 points.
TJ Nunnery, the younger brother of former Barton Volleyball standout Tasiah Nunnery, scored four points on thundering dunks keying a pair of the Beavers' second half bursts.
SERIES NOTES
- Barton has won the last 4 in the series and 4-of-the-last-5 at the Barton Gym
- Barton leads the series 45-11 at the Barton Gym
- Barton leads the overall series 81-34
Record Book Watch
Cooper Jackson
- 162 career steals *2nd most – 157 behind Eric Bush's 319 (1999-01)