Second half explosion leads 16th ranked Barton men to 110-93 victory at Independence; Coombs notches win No. 100 #GoBarton

Trailing by one at the halftime break Saturday afternoon on the road, the 16th ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team owned second half action routing Independence Community College 110-93.

In its largest twenty-minute outburst of the season, the Cougars put up 65 points to outscore the hosts by 17 points for its fourth straight victory on the Pirates' home floor and avenge an earlier overtime loss to split the season series.

Notching Head Coach Jeremy Coombs' 100th victory as the Cougars' head coach, Barton improves to 17-6 in the KJCCC and 23-6 on the season as Independence drops to 8-15 in league and 12-16 overall.

Next up is Wednesday's 7:30 p.m. regular season finale at 18th ranked Coffeyville Community College as the Red Ravens were taken down tonight at Dodge City in slipping into a second place tie with the Cougars. The result will determine the No. 2 seed for the upcoming region playoffs while having possible national tournament at-large bid implications on the line as well.

Keandre Kindell's 28 points led five Cougars in double-figures, the sophomore point guard also dishing out a game high 7 assists and grabbing 7 rebounds helping Barton to a plus-10 advantage on the glass.

Scoring 18 of those points in second half play, Kindell was also joined by Fontaine Williams' second half surge of 17 points. Williams drained the Cougars' lone four made three-pointers, all coming in second half action to spark the Cougars from the outside in finishing with 21 total points in tying his career high for the second straight game while dishing out 5 assists and hauling down 6 rebounds.

Aris Rodriguez put together his second straight all-around performance finishing with 18 points with 3 assists and 3 rebounds, along with recording a steal and a block.

Aiding in the Cougars' plus-12 point differential in the paint, Brent Moss and Sebastian Muchitsch recorded double-double performances. Moss' 16 points and game high 11 rebounds posting his 14th double feat of the season with Muchitsch also tallying 16 points with 10 rebounds for his 3rd of the year.

First half contributions from Pavel Ivanov's 3 points and Lucas N'Gombo's pair of points helped the Cougars stay close with Eltramon Smith, Jr.'s six points in second half play helping Barton grab the lead in the opening three minutes of the final frame.

Four Pirates reached double-figures in being led by Chris Dockery's double-double 23 points and 10 rebounds with 4 assists. David Wilson came off the bench for an 18-point, 8-rebound performance with Tyland Holdman and Cedric Dixon each knocking down a pair of arc busters in contributing 13 and 12 points respectively.

In a tightly contested first half, Barton grabbing a four-point lead at one point, Independence briefly held a seven-point lead with 65 seconds remaining following a pair of Barton technicals resulting in a six-point swing. The Cougars responded with the next six points, two trips to the free throw line by Williams with Rodriguez' fastbreak layup from Kindell's assist closing Barton to within 46-45 to the break.

The Cougars grabbed the lead within the first three minutes of second half play, Smith, Jr. scoring four of theos with Muchitsch going into double figures with a bucket.

Independence scored the the next pair of points but it would be the last time they'd lead as the combined guard play from Kindell and Williams highlighted an 11-2 stretch growing the lead to eight.

Smith, Jr. and Muchitsch baskets gave Barton its first double-digit lead at the 10:55 mark.

Independence cut the margin under ten just three more times, the last coming just under eight to play before Williams' 3rd and 4th triple of the half pushed the gap quickly out to 17 points.