The top ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team put the final touches on its conference title season with a 93-69 victory Tuesday night at Colby Community College.
Following a warm-up violation resulting in Colby taking a one-point lead via a technical free throw, eight straight by the Cougars set the tone in nearly doubling up the Trojans in the first half. Sitting the starting five for the final thirteen minutes, the deep and talented crew of reserves kept the pedal to the medal with 47 second half points in cruising to the squad's 20th straight victory.
Concluding the regular season slate two games atop the standings at 23-1, Barton improves to 29-1 on the year while Colby places 11th at 6-18 and 10-20 overall.
Next up is post-season play as Barton awaits its opponent next Tuesday in Region VI quarterfinals against Saturday's victor of 8th seeded Coffeyville hosting 9th seeded Pratt. Game time set for 7:30 p.m. following the women's quarterfinal contest with free admission for attendees.
As no Cougar logged more than 24 minutes of court time, six of the eleven scorers reached double figures led by Keandre Kindell's 14 points off the bench.
Knocking down 4-of-5 beyond the arc, Christian Bowen-Webb dropped 12 points with Brent Moss adding 10 points with 5 rebounds. Fawaz Surakat set a new career high with 10 points while Stefan Spray tied a career high 8 points which also included a steal leading to a thunderous dunk around a Trojan defender.
Getting 56 points from the bench, Barton outscored Colby by twenty-five points from the reserves.
Conference and National Player of the Week Lajae Jones added 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting in nineteen minutes as Ring Malith canned 2-of-4 long range shots contributing to his 11 points.
D'Necco Rucker led Colby with 17 points, 4-of-8 beyond the arc as Maxence Massadila connected on 3-of-4 distance shots in finishing with 11 points along with a game high 6 assists.
SERIES NOTES
- Barton has won eight straight in the series
- Barton has won four straight and 7-of-the-last-8 in Colby
- Barton leads 26-10 in Colby
- Barton leads the overall series 62-14
Record Book Watch
Cooper Jackson
- 192 career steals *2nd most – 127 behind Eric Bush's 319 (1999-01)
Mozae Downing-Rivers
- 345 career assists *4th most – 4 behind Brandon Hughes' 349 (1994-96)