No. 21 Cougar block party holds off Raven rally, pick up big 65-57 win at Coffeyville #GoBarton

Swatting away a season high eleven shots, the No. 21 ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team held off a Coffeyville Community College rally 65-57 Wednesday night in Coffeyville. Earning their first victory in Coffeyville since 2007, the Cougars remain atop the Jayhawk standings at 10-2 improving to 14-2 on the season while the nationally receiving votes Ravens dropped to 8-4 in conference play and 12-4 overall. Barton's next action comes Saturday in hosting Neosho County Community College in a 7:30 p.m. tip at the Barton Gym.

Barton broke open a thirteen point each deadlock with a strong finish in the remaining twelve points outscoring the Ravens 20-8 before four straight in final seconds cut the Cougars lead to the locker room to 33-25.

Noah Webster scored five of his eight points in the opening ninety seconds with Keshon Montague leading to the break with ten while Marvin Cannon's personal five point run helped break open the first half.

The Cougars controlled the first eleven minutes of second half action to methodically build the lead up to sixeen points. However the next seven minutes were owned by the Ravens in launching an 18-4 run aided by four straight Barton empty possessions to cut the deficit to 58-57 with under two minutes remaining.

Knocking down 3-of-8 from behind the arc, Montague hit the biggest of the three when Barton needed it most, burying a long range triple to end a three minute scoreless stretch and more importantly pushing the lead out to four with 1:39 remaining.

From there the Cougars turned defensive, blocking shots with none bigger than Elijah Ford and Cannon on consecutive Raven trips to protect the lead. Barton sank a perfect four tries from the charity stripe for the final margin in the big conference road victory.

Webster led all scorers with a season high performance of twenty-one points, canning 5-of-10 from behind the arc while also grabbing a career high eight rebounds. Montague scored sixteen and dished out four assists while Ford rounded out the double-digit scoring with ten points to go along with seven boards. Wilkins and Cannon joined Webster with eight rebounds each as the duo also rejected two and five shots respectively of the Cougars' season high eleven shots.

Casey Benton led just two Ravens in double-digits with nineteen on 50% shooting while Malik Keith finished with ten and Cedric Roland leading Coffeyville in rebounding with seven.

Other Game Notes:

• Barton's victory snapped a three game slide in Coffeyville, the first since December 1, 2007, when the Cougars rallied from a seven point deficit with twenty seconds remaining to capture a 96-95 win
• Barton now leads the overall series 18-12 and cuts the gap to 5-4 in Coffeyville
• The 65 points matched the lowest output for the Cougars this season but also held the Ravens to its lowest output of the season in 57 points
• Barton had a season low made field goals (24), made free throws (9) and attempted (13); and second worst field goal percentage (38.1%), assists (9), and steals (4)
• Defensively, Barton, committed a season low eleven fouls, allowed just seven assists, three point made (4) and percentage (18.2%), tying a low free throw made (5) and second best attempted (11)
• Career highs: Marvin Cannon (5) and Elijah Ford (3) blocked shots led the way to Barton's season high eleven blocked shots (previous high was 7 versus Seward County)
• Barton's season leading and fourth best scorer in Region VI Kawanise Wilkins (16.8) finished with six points which snapped a fourteen game streak of reaching double-figures