Top ranked Cougars control Garden City on the road #GoBarton

The top ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team held control on the road Saturday afternoon picking up a 82-77 victory over Garden City Community College.

Trailing 5-3 just 2:29 into Saturday's contest, Brent Moss personal 5-0 run gave the Cougars the lead for good over the final 35:18 in helping Barton secure their 34th straight victory.

The third straight win in the series moves the Cougars to 2-0 in conference play and 7-0 overall while the Broncbusters remain searching for their first conference win falling to 0-2 in league play and 4-3 on the young season.

Next up for the Cougars is a Tuesday night road trip to Cloud County in a 8:00 p.m. tip-off with the T-Birds before returning home next Saturday to welcome in Cowley College who last defeated the Cougars 80-70 back on November 29th, 2023.

Moss led Barton's balanced scoring adding 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting with seven rebounds and three assists.

Seven other Cougars found the scoring column, Keandre Kindell adding 15 points in 29 minutes of play and dishing out a team high four assists. Fontaine Williams led Barton's bench play with 14 points while Aris Rodriguez added eight of his 11 points in the second half during a personal 8-2 run including back-to-back treys.

Four Broncbusters reached double-figures with Antonio Chol leading the way with a game high 25 point and nine rebound effort. Boston Harker added 19 points behind 4-of-9 shooting from long distance while Caleb Smith concluded the double-digit scoring with 12 points and six rebounds.

RECAP
Holding a slight 13-11 lead at the 12-minute mark of the opening frame, Kindell's lone basket of the first half ignited a six-player 18-5 Barton run with James Parlow, Jr. adding all five of his points and Moss contributing with four of his 13 first half points gifting the Cougars it's largest lead of 15, 31-16 with five minutes to play in first half action.

Unable to keep the foot on the pedal, Barton found themselves in a late first half dogfight to lead by just two 37-35 as the Broncbusters closed the final 4:36 behind a 19-6 run. 

Maintaining the lead out of the locker room, four straight from Moss and a Kindell trey after being limited due to early first half foul trouble pushed Barton's lead back to double-digits 65-53 with just under nine minutes to play. 

A plus two-minute scoreless stretch with under five minutes to play left the door open for the Broncbusters, closing within three, 76-73 with 1:25 to play following one of Garden City's 11 made three-pointers.

Leading Barton to a plus-10 edge in bench production, Williams delivered a bucket pushing the advantage back to two-possessions before coming up with a big steal leading to Kindell's off the glass pass to the trialing Moss for the flush adding the final separation needed pushing the lead back to seven.