By TODD MOORE
Barton Sports Info
Building a twenty-three point first half margin Tuesday night in Concordia, the top ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team held off any serious threats in picking up an 86-75 victory knocking off previously unbeaten Cloud County Community College.
Leading throughout the night, Barton strung five stretches of atleast five points together to gain the big advantage before being outscored 9-1 in the closing five minutes leaving the Cougars at just a 42-27 lead at the halftime break.
Cloud County continued chipping away in second half action to slice the deficit under double digits just five minutes out of the locker room, eventually cutting it down to eight with under to seven to play. Following a pair of Brent Moss free throws on the way to a big night and timely three-pointers from Keandre Kindell and Fontaine Williams, the Cougars kept the double-digit margin until the final thirty seconds on the contest.
The victory improves Barton to 3-0 in conference play and 8-0 overall while Cloud County, receiving votes in the latest poll, slips to 2-1 in league and 8-1 on the season.
Next up is Saturday's 7:30 p.m. hosting of 19th ranked Cowley College, the last team to have beaten Barton thirty-five games ago dating back to last November 29th in an 80-70 win on the Cougars home floor.
Moss led eight Cougars scoring with 24 points and grabbing 11 rebounds posting his 3rd double-double of the season.
Williams came off the bench providing a 4-of-4 three-point first half shooting spark, canning another pair in the final half to tie his career high 19 points in part to 6-of-8 long distance shooting.
Held to just two points in the opening stanza, Kindell opened second half scoring with a deep splash in a 3-8 three-point shooting for 19 total points to reach double-figures in each of his sophomore campaign games.
Overall the Cougars connected on 11-of-25 (.440) from beyond the arc in finishing at .47.6% overall with 15-of-20 shooting coming from the charity stripe.
Cloud County finished at 41.9% shooting, just 5-of-21 long distance, and were 18-of-24 in free throws.
The T-Birds were led by the game high, double-double effort from Elidjah Savane scoring 25 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Syncere Burnette added 16 points, Keyon Garret-Miller tallied 11 points, and reigning conference player of week Matthew Garber rounded out the double-digit scoring with 10 points.
RECAP
Aris Rodriguez' jumper opened the night's scoring with Sebastian Muchitsch becoming the fifth Cougars to score in the first five minutes capping an early 6-0 run building a 10-3 lead.
Moss scored 11 points in the opening twenty minutes, six leading and capping a 7-0 run giving Barton its first double-digit lead of the night.
Halfway through the half, Muchitsch's And-1 followed by Williams' second triple pushed the gap to fifteen.
Barton increased the margin to seventeen twice, the first coming on Rodriguez' jumper and Lyna Brooks, Jr. knocking down a deep trey with the second time coming on Lucas N'Gombo's bucket becoming the 8th Cougar to hit the first half scoring column. The margin advantage didn't stop there as Williams buried another pair of triples in succession ballooning the lead to twenty-three at 41-18.
The final 4:50 was anything like the first fifteen, Barton managing just a 1-of-2 Williams trip to the line as Cloud County outscored the Cougars 9-1.
After being held to just two points, Kindell's trey opened up second half scoring with Cloud County matching the three-ball as the teams traded points until the T-Birds' surge produced consecutive triples.
With the home team scoring four straight out of the first media timeout drawing to within nine, the Cougars responded with a 9-2 stretch highlighted by Williams' fifth trey of the night.
The T-Birds kept chipping away at the margin, later stringing six straight closing it back to nine. Moss' posterizing baseline dunk for an And-1 momentarily halted the run until another four home team tallies shrunk the deficit to eight.
Moss' pair of free throws pushed it to double digits then following a T-Bird 1-of-2 trip to the line, Kindell buried his 3rd trey of the half as Barton's lead would not fall under ten for the next six minutes until thirty-two seconds left in the game.