By TODD MOORE
Barton Sports Info
The top seeded Barton Community College men's basketball team continued its march in the 2024 NJCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament with a 93-78 semifinal victory over 5th seeded Indian Hills Community College in Wednesday afternoon's quarterfinal contest at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
Making its third appearance in the national semifinals, the Cougars exercised one part of the haunting memory of its lone championship appearance in 1999 with the revenge ending of Indian Hills' season as the Warriors won the title that season knocking off Barton 100-86.
The Cougars' program second most 26th consecutive victory improves the overall record to 35-1 while Indian Hills ends the year at 29-6.
Barton's next and final step of a historic season comes Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in taking on 7th seeded Triton College for the title. The Trojans held off Connors State College 87-84 to earn the Midwest District champion's first ever title game appearance.
Trailing by three at the 14:13 mark, a mini five straight spurt capped by Mozae Downing-Rivers' triple breaking the third lead change put the Cougars in front for the remaining thirty-three minutes.
Barton led by thirteen at the halftime break, stretched margin to as many as 20 points five minutes out of the locker room in keeping the advantage in the double-digit range the rest of the night.
Lajae Jones led seven Cougars scoring and four in double-figures by putting up 25 points on 7-13 shooting, grabbed a team high 9 rebounds with two steals.
Myles Thompson also grabbed 9 rebounds with his 21 points with a career high 4 assists as the Cougars dished out 21 dimes on 33 made shots.
Coming off the bench the Cougars again received solid play from Brent Moss and Keandre Kindell with 23 combined points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. Moss recorded 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting with 5 rebounds while Kindell scored 10 points on 50% shooting including 2-of-3 long distance shooting and dished out a pair of assists with two thefts.
From the guard position Cooper Jackson knocked down a pair of arc busters for 9 points with 7 rebounds and 3 assists as Downing-Rivers posted a stat stuffing 8 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and 5 steal performance.
Davontae Hall and Braden Sparks each tallied 17 points to lead the Warriors with TJ Sparks scoring 12 points with Chris Mpaka pulling down a game high 10 rebounds.
Tracking the Cougars:
- Official NJCAA Championship website: https://www.njcaa.org/championships/sports/mbkb/div1/index
- TV/Livestream: ESPNU
- Tickets: https://www.njcaa.org/tickets
- $65 All-Session
- $16 Session
- Children age 3 and under are fee
GAME NOTES
- The 2024 Tournament is Barton's fifth appearance in program history – the first since 2018
- Saturday's championship game appearance is just the program's second (1999)
- Indian Hills was making their 18th tournament appearance and third straight including second straight semifinal game
- Barton's 47% shooting snapped its second straight 50% effort
Record Book Watch
Cooper Jackson
- 213 career steals *2nd most – 105 behind Eric Bush's 319 (1999-01)
Mozae Downing-Rivers
- 394 career assists *3rd most – 59 behind Gene Butler's 453 (1990-92)