Cougars knock off T-Birds in battle of unbeatens, 65-53

In a battle of unbeatens, the eighth-ranked Barton Community College Cougars dealt the 24th-ranked Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds their first loss of the season.
Barton used a 14-2 run early in the second half to turn a five-point advantage into a 17-point cushion and held off the T-Birds to post a 65-53 Jayhawk Conference victory Sunday afternoon in Bryant Gymnasium.
Falling for the first time this season, the T-Birds are now 7-1 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
Barton improves to 9-0 overall and 3-0 in the conference.
The Cougars went into the game as the second highest scoring team in the Jayhawk, averaging 89.6 points, while Cloud County was allowing a conference low 52.6 per contest.
The T-Birds held Barton to nearly 25 points under its season average, but were unable to get untracked offensively, shooting just 31 percent (16 of 52) from the field.
"Going into the game we talked about how Barton was the number one offense. Well, how are they number one offense? They score a ton of points in transition and they lead our league in offensive rebounding. So we felt like limiting easy opportunities for them based on our turnovers was one and keeping them off the glass was two, were going to be the keys to winning the game," Cloud County coach Devin Kastrup said. "They outscored us 17-8 on second chance points and they scored 15 points off of our turnovers. So those were the two biggest pieces. Couple that with the fact that we didn't shoot it well. You put those two things and you have a bad offensive night against the number eight team in the country, you are not going to win the game."
Cloud County, falling behind 5-1 early, got a three-point shot by Isaiah Sy and a bucket by Abdoulaye Fall to take its only lead of the game, 6-5.
Myles Thompson followed up a missed shot and Cooper Jackson made two free throws to put Barton on top to stay, 9-6, with 11:29 to play in the first half.
With both teams struggling to score the basketball in the opening 20 minutes, the Cougars led by as many as nine points.
Cloud County was just 6 of 24 from the floor in that first half for 25 percent and made 2 of 13 three-point attempts for 15 percent.
The T-Birds did knock down 10 of 13 free throws for 77 percent.
Clinging to a 13-12 advantage, the Cougars used a 12-4 spurt to go up 27-18.
It was a 29-20 game when Cloud County got two free throws by Cheikh Sow to make it 29-22.
Ja’Ron Briggs Jr. drew a foul and hit two free throws with one second on the clock to get the T-Birds within five points, 29-24, at halftime.
Lajae Jones scored the first two points of the second half to give Barton a 31-24 advantage.
Cloud County answered with a three by Sy to cut the deficit to four points, 31-27.
A basket by Brent Moss and a three by Jones upped the Cougars’ lead to 36-27.
Roy Aviv hit a baseline jumper and Sy scored on a drive to make it a 36-31 game.
In a span of 1:03, Jones sandwiched a pair of threes around a free throw by Moss, and Barton led 43-31.
Jones scored 20 of his game-high 25 points in the second half. He was 8 of 12 from the field, including four of four from three-point range, and five of seven from the free throw line.
Sy, who came off the bench to score 10 points, finished on a drive, and Cloud County was down 43-33 with 13:23 to play in the game.
Barton scored the next seven points to open up its biggest lead of the game at 50-33.
Starting with a three by Emmanuel Manyoun, the T-Birds used a 12-4 spurt to narrow the gap to 54-45.
Mozae Downing-Rivers hit from 15 feet and Christian Bowen-Webb made a three to give Barton a 59-45 advantage with just over five minutes to play.
Cloud County could get no closer than the final margin of 12 points after that.
Sow, who was six of six from the free throw line, led the T-Birds with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Briggs Jr. and Manyoun matched Sy with 10 points each.
Jones was the only Barton player to score in double figures.
The Cougars shot 42 percent (23 of 55) from the floor and made 7 of 15 three-point attempts for 47 percent.
Cloud County will host Garden City Community College on Wednesday night.
The Broncbusters, after defeating Pratt Community College 82-66 on Sunday, are 6-2 overall and 3-0 in the Jayhawk Conference.
"The challenge for us is we go from playing the best team in our league to the most talented team in our league on a quick turnaround," Kastrup said.