Cougars' upset bid falls short late to 4th ranked Dodge City; Barton begins post-season Saturday at home #GoBarton

The Barton Community College men's basketball team led with ninety seconds remaining but came up short Wednesday night at the Barton Gym as the 4th ranked Conquistadors of Dodge City Community College survived the upset bid 87-86.

Dodge City's largest lead of five came early in the first half with the Cougars eventually grabbing a ten point lead in the first four minutes of the second half. The Conquistadors took over the lead with ten minutes remaining, exchanging twelve flip flops of the advantage until the Cougars' last lead at 1:40 to outscore Barton 7-5 over the final eighty seconds, the last five from the free throw line sealing the victory.

The Cougars end the regular season at 17-13, placing sixth in the standings at 11-13 while Dodge City moves to 26-4 on the year atop the league at 21-3.

Seeded 7th for the Region VI playoffs, Barton will host 10th seeded Pratt Community College in first round action on Saturday in a 7:00 p.m. tip at the Barton Gym. The winner of the matchup will then travel to 2nd seed Hutchinson next Tuesday for second round action. Dodge City awaits the victor of 8th seed Colby and 9th seed Cloud County to begin second round play.

Cougar Downing's 26 points led all players, draining 4-of-8 from beyond the arc and a perfect ten tosses from the free throw line, to go along with 4 assists. Despite battling foul issues, Evans Kipruto posted his 4th double-double of the year, shooting 9-of-10 from the field for 19 points and grabbing a game high 11 rebounds and 3 blocks. Hannes Saar dished out 4 assists with 12 points before becoming one of three Cougars to foul out. Myles Thompson played tough inside off the bench with 13 points and 6 rebounds as Trey Bates III provided a 4 assist and 4 steal performance contributing 6 points.

Barton led by three at the halftime break, in part to 53.1% shooting including 6-of-10 from beyond the arc. The Cougars cooled off to just 36% second half accuracy to finish the contest at 44.1%. Dodge City shot 49.2% for the game, nearly 54% in second half play to complete the comeback.

Despite the loss, Barton outrebounded its opponent for the 25th time of its thirty games, leading the board battle 39-35.

A balanced distribution of six players in double figures helped Dodge City secure their first sweep over Barton since 2016. Themus Fulks led with 16 points and 4 assists with Oumar Koureissi and Kalen Williams close behind at 14 points each. BJ Freeman and Kerwin Prince contributed 12 points each as Nick Pringle joined the pair with 12 points, adding in 10 rebounds for the double-double.

RECAP
Dodge City's largest lead of five came early in the contest at 7-2 with Barton battling back to claim its first advantage three minutes later at 14:24 on Saar's first of his two treys in the opening half.

The lead exchanged hand ten more times in the half, each team briefly owning a four point edge, with Josh Jordan's three-pointer 30 seconds left in the frame was the 44-41 difference maker to the locker room.

Six points including a pair of thunderous dunks by Kipruto and five from Downing highlighted a 13-6 start to second half play building the Cougars' largest lead of ten with 16:15 remaining at 57-47.

Dodge City fired back with eight straight over the next two minutes, Thompson's inside bucket and Downing's pair of free throws keeping Barton on top holding off the surge for the time being.

Fouling out Modibo Sanogo with 11:32 left on a made inside bucket, the Conquistadors pounded inside on the foul plagued Cougars to regain the lead at 64-61 at the midpoint.

First half action seesawed lead changes and the second half was of no exception as final numbers had 13 ties and 24 changes of the leaderboard.

Saar become the second Cougar foul out victim with Barton up to with four to play, Dodge City sinking a pair of tosses tying it at 75 responding to Barton's 6-1 stretch.

Barton's last advantage came at 1:40 left following Downing's free throws but Kipruto became the third foul out victim on the next possession as Dodge City's counted bucket on the play put the Conquistadors up by one.

The Conquistadors' last field goal came at the six minute mark, making 6-of-8 from the stripe until that 1:22 play, sinking an additional 5-of-7 the rest of the way for a four point late margin before Jordan drained a near half-court shot at the buzzer.