Great Bend Post
The Barton Community College men’s basketball team is becoming very familiar and comfortable playing games inside the Hutchinson Sports Arena. Winning their 10th straight game at the Sports Arena, the Cougars were able to capture their first ever NJCAA National Championship by defeating Triton College 88-73 this past Saturday.
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Coach Jeremy Coombs and Barton finished off a 36-1 season with a national title.
"We talked about the triple crown," said Coombs. "We wanted conference, a Region and a National Tournament. It became one game at a time and the players stuck with that. They never looked ahead. That's just hats off to these guys with their maturity and their drive."
The 36 wins sets the record for most wins in program history. A 27-game win streak to close the year marks the 2nd longest win streak in school history.
The final radio call on Eagle Radio's 104.3 FM from Saturday's championship win.
Mozae Downing-Rivers, one of five players from Kansas on the roster, dropped seven assists in the championship game.
"It still hasn't hit home for a couple of guys," said Downing-Rivers. "It's definitely so surreal. We've been talking about it all year. We said we had three goals. We got the first two done, a conference championship and a Region VI Championship. We came here and wanted to get the last one. We finally did it."
Barton wins it all, the school's 60th overall national championship, after finishing 24-9 a year ago and missing out on the National Tournament.
"I think everything happens for a reason," said Coombs. "I think last year happened for a reason and it motivated these guys to come over here and get this."
Barton won all four of their national tournament games by at least 14 points. Since expanding the NJCAA National Tournament to 24 teams 10 years ago, the Cougars became just the second #1-seed to win the championship.