14th ranked Cougars lead wire-to-wire to advance to third straight Region 6 Semifinals in win over Cloud County #GoBarton

The 14th ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team started the defense tour leading wire-to-wire Wednesday evening at the Barton Gym defeating Cloud County Community College 100-87 in the Quarterfinal round of the Region 6/Plains District Men's Basketball Tournament.

Advancing to the Region 6 Semifinals for the third straight season, the Cougars improve to 24-7 overall and will meet No. 2 seed and 21st ranked Coffeyville Community College (23-8) in Friday's 7:30 p.m. contest at Fort Hays State University's Gross Memorial Coliseum in Hays, KS. The matchup features a rematch of last week's regular season finale where the Red Ravens took down the Cougars 89-85 to secure the two seed.

The winner will hold significant national at-large possibilities and advance to Saturday's 5:00 p.m. Championship game against the survivor of 3:00 p.m. contest between top seeded and No. 5 ranked Cowley College (27-4) and No. 5 seeded Butler Community College (22-10).

Dropping their sixth straight in the series, the T-Birds conclude the season at 14-18 overall.

Barton came out firing on all cylinders scoring the opening four points to eventually built up a largest lead of 16 on 64.5% first half shooting with seven of the eight Cougars contributing to an ultimate 54-40 halftime lead.

As Barton cooled off starting the second half 0-for-5 and 3-for-14 over the opening 5:38, Cloud County carefully worked its way back in the game closing the deficit to seven by the 15:50 and 12:37 marks behind 8-0 and 6-0 stretches.

Following four of Brent Moss 19 second half points keying a personal 4-0 run and bumping the Cougar lead back to double digits, the T-Birds would respond with two more second half charges grabbing the next five drawing back within six with 12:37 remaining and the final push coming with 6:15 to play clawing within 83-77 fueled behind three of their seven made second half 3-pointers during a 13-6 run.

Barton pushed the advantage back to double digits to hold over the final 4:52 in part to timely plays from Moss adding six points in the key 8-0 stretch putting Cloud County in the headlights with the lead reaching the largest of 16 once again following a Eltramon Smith, Jr. charity toss and later Sebastian Muchitsch fast break rim rocker with 2:15 to play.

Moss led seven Cougars in scoring and six different in double figures collecting his third straight and 16th double-double of the season behind team highs of 25 points, 12 rebounds of which six coming on offensive side and adding five assists.

Keandre Kindell supplied 10 of Barton's 21 assists on the night while contributing with 23 points connecting on three of the Cougars 10 made three-pointers for his first collegiate double-double to go with three rebounds.

Fontaine Williams paced Barton's bench production finishing with 15 of the Cougars 17 points off the bench with five rebounds. Smith, Jr. posted the Cougars third different double-double with his collegiate first contributing with 13 points and 11 rebounds while Aris Rodriguez added 12 points, two blocks and Muchitsch rounding out the double-digit scoring with 10 points, three rebounds and three assists.

Three T-Birds reached double-figures in being led by Syncere Burnette's 31 points on 6-of-12 outside shooting with five rebounds. Elidjah Savane added a double-double performance with 20 points and 13 rebounds with Dejuan Graise hitting 2-of-3 arc busters in contributing with 12 points off the bench to lead Cloud County's plus-4 advantage in bench scoring.

After the host start the Cougars settled in for a 50% shooting night, 10-of-22 from long distance and 22-of-30 from the charity stripe, with a plus-nine advantage on the glass.

Cloud County stayed consistent on the evening shooting 46.5% after a 45.5% first half and 47.4% second half. The T-Birds finished 12-of-32 from behind the 3-point line and 9-of-15 from the freet throw line.