The 17th ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team survived a road grind Saturday afternoon at Arley Bryant Gymnasium, rallying for a 78–76 victory over Cloud County Community College.
With its fifth straight victory, Barton moves to 2–0 in Jayhawk Conference play and 7–1 overall, while Cloud County slips to 1–1 in league and 6–2 on the season. The Cougars return home Tuesday for a 7:30 p.m. conference matchup against Colby Community College at Fleske Fieldhouse.
Balanced scoring again led the way, as five Cougars finished with at least nine points. Jayden Ramirez and Aris Rodriguez shared top honors with 19 apiece, Ramirez going 6-of-12 from the floor and 7-of-9 at the line with four rebounds and three assists, while Rodriguez added five free throws and a series of late-line trips that kept Barton within striking distance.
Sebastian Muchitsch delivered 14 points powered by a 10-for-12 effort at the line, including the go-ahead pair in the final half-minute, while adding four rebounds, two steals, and a block. Noah Williams turned in a rugged 14-point, 60-percent shooting night paired with eight rebounds, two blocks, and several key defensive sequences.
Blake Rucker supplied a major lift off the bench with nine points on 2-of-3 shooting from deep and 3-of-4 at the stripe.
Barton finished 40.7% from the field and 26-of-38 at the free-throw line while committing just seven turnovers, offsetting Cloud County's 19-board rebounding advantage, including a plus-5 second chance points edge.
Cloud County was led by Manasseh Stackhouse's 16 points and nine rebounds, with D'ontez Walker adding 14 points and six boards. Syncere Burnette chipped in 13 points, including a pair of threes, while Kuel Akot supplied 10 points off the bench with two triples. Elidjah Savane narrowly missed a double-double with eight points and a game-high 10 rebounds, and Al Brooks Jr. added seven points and seven boards.
Barton opened with an early 11–10 edge before a cold stretch and a 19–6 Cloud run built a double-digit cushion at 28–17 and later 35–25. The Cougars steadied, closing the half on a timely 6–0 burst sparked by a Williams jumper and a Rodriguez drive, before two Muchitsch free throws in the final seconds trimmed the deficit to 35–31 at intermission.
Barton quickly clawed within a possession to start the second half, but Cloud repeatedly answered, using a stretch of threes, points in the paint, and free throws to push the margin back to eight at 69–61 and again to 71–63 with just over five minutes remaining.
From there, the Cougars mounted a decisive 15–5 finishing kick. Rucker's wing three and a Williams transition layup cut the gap to 71–68, and after Cloud twice re-upped the margin to four, including at 74–70 with 1:30 to play, Barton answered with Rodriguez free throws and a three-point play from Ramirez to pull within one at 74–73.
After Rucker secured a defensive rebound, Muchitsch calmly buried two free throws to give Barton its first lead in nearly 35 minutes of action.
Following an unforced T-Bird turnover, Ramirez added two clutch foul shots for a three-point cushion with eighteen ticks left. Cloud's tying attempt rimmed out but Akot's tip on the T-Birds' 21st offensive rebound was not enough as Rucker split a pair of charity tosses with 1.8 seconds left to survive a desperation heave at the buzzer.