Cougars upset bid falls short to 13th ranked Coffeyville #GoBarton

Despite a scoreless stretch, the Barton Community College men's basketball team had its chances Saturday afternoon at the Barton Gym but the 13th ranked Red Ravens of Coffeyville Community College fought off the upset bid for a 95-86 victory.

Barton grabbed a 13-point first half led but went scoreless in the final five minutes and got off to a slow second start in being outscored 26-2 in an eight minute stretch across the halves. Despite the scoring outage, the Cougars fought back to regain the lead twice but big shots and a perfect 28 trips to the free throw line, including six in the final thirty seconds, helped the Ravens prevail.

Even with the loss, the Cougars remain in fourth place of the conference standings at 10-7 as their three-game win streak comes to an end slipping Barton to 15-8 on the season. Coffeyville rebounds from Wednesday's road loss at 23rd ranked Butler to remain in second place at 13-5 and 19-5 overall.

Next on the slate is another home court contest coming Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. hosting Cloud County Community College. The T-birds, who defeated Barton back on December 7 by eleven points, are looking for not only their second straight win at the Barton Gym but to snap their current four game slide following a narrow home loss to Pratt.

Nathan Johnson and the Ravens' free throw shooting was the big story in the victory, Johnson dropping three clutch jumpers including a triple in holding off Barton's momentum while a team effort perfect free throw shooting of 28-for-28 surpassed the team's tenth worst conference standing of 65% charity stripe success.

Averaging shy of 12 points per game, Johnson led all players with career high 31 points on 11-of-13 shooting, 3-of-4 behind the arc, and six conversions from the free throw line. Outrebounding the Cougars by 13, Camian Shell led the Ravens' glass with 9 rebounds while adding 18 points and team high 4 assist. Jordan Wildy contributed 14 points as Sotirios Nafpliotis came off the bench for 11 points.

Barton had five in double-figures led by Cougar Downing's 21 points as the sophomore closes within 27 points of racking up 1000 points in the Cougar blue. Mozae Downing-Rivers led the floor game with 10 assists, adding 15 points to record his 4th double-double of the year. Aime Rutayisire added 15 points and 6 rebounds, joined by Cooper Jackson for team high rebound honors. Jackson also contributed 12 points on 2-2 shooting behind the arc with the Region VI theft leader adding 6 more steals to his total. Coming off the bench Ring Malith canned a pair beyond the arc for 10 points with Amiri Ndayisaba giving the Cougars another spark adding a career high 8 points.

Downing scored eight points in the game's first five minutes for the Cougars' first eight point lead. Barton stayed ahead on the scoreboard the ensuing seven minutes despite the Raven's chipping away in closing the gap to three.

Hannes Saar's layup helped start a Barton 10-0 run, holding Coffeyville scoreless for over three minutes as free throws from Downing and Malith followed by Jackson's theft and layup copied by Ndayisaba's steal and layup off an inbound pushed the margin to thirteen at 35-22 with 5:06 remaining.

From there the Cougars went 0-6 with three turnovers while Coffeyville turned the tides with the final thirteen points of the half to send the teams to the break at 35-all.

Following Rutayisire's opening second half bucket, the Ravens continued the first half momentum by rattling off another thirteen straight for a 48-37 lead by the 16:53 mark.

Like Coffeyville did in the first half, Barton chipped away at the gap, closing to within one following Jackson's steal and layup followed by Ndayisaba's triple in front of the bench with 8:48 to go.

The Ravens responded in holding off the charge until Malith's personal 8-0 run on a pair of treys and free throws put Barton in front 74-73 with 6:25 left. After a Coffeyville deuce of charity tosses, Ndayisaba's baseline drive put the Cougars back in front again at 76-75 with 4:50 remaining but it would be the last time Barton was ahead.

Enter Johnson, hitting three clutch shots in the ensuing four minutes to keep Barton from regaining the lead, with his teammates staying perfect from the stripe on six attempts in the final thirty-seconds to widen the final margin.