GREAT BEND, Kan. (BartonSports.com) – A 19-2 stretch broke Saturday afternoon’s 13th tie as the Barton Community College men’s basketball team owned a pivotal three minutes to pull away 98-85 hosting Garden City Community College.
Tied at 79 with 4:06 remaining, Eltramon Smith, Jr.‘s corner pocket triple followed by consecutive Keandre Kindell and Brent Moss steals leading to fast break dunks ignited a decisive 9-0 run leading to a 98-81 advantage with under a minute to play.
Rebounding from a miserable shooting night in victory Wednesday at No. 23 Hutchinson, the Cougars shot a season high 57.4%, over 64% in second half play including dropping 5-of-7 three-pointers. Defensively despite Garden City shooting nearly 52%, the Cougars cranked up the defense late during the back breaking three-minute span towards an 11 steal afternoon within the Broncbusters’ 15 turnovers.
Barton’s fourth straight win in the series improves the Cougars to 10-4 in KJCCC play and 16-4 overall while Garden City’s four-game win streak ends slipping to 6-8 in league and 11-9 on the season.
Kindell posted his second consecutive career high scoring performance, following his previous high 26 tallies with a 31 point outing going 10-of-16 from the field and a perfect 10-10 to take over the KJCCC charity stripe efficiency lead.
Moss reached double figure scoring for the 16th straight game as the reigning KJCCC and NJCAA Player of the Week poured in 25 points, collected 6 rebounds, and tied Kindell and Aris Rodriguez for a team leading three steals.
Barton was plus-16 points in bench production, 13 each coming from James Parlow, Jr. and Smith’s career high performance including breaking the final tie as part of his 3-of-3 shooting from beyond the arc.
Five Broncbusters reached double digits led by Antonio Chol’s 3-of-7 deep shooting towards a 20 point outing followed by Emmanuel Manyuon’s 4-of-10 long distance shots towards his 18 points.
Josiah Sabino helped Garden City to a plus-3 advantage on the boards by hauling down 15 rebounds and added 17 points for the double-double while dishing out a game high 5 assists.
Caleb Smith contributed 12 points as Dasean Lewis came off the bench to add 10 points.
