Despite scoring a season low thirty-one points in the first half, the Barton Community College men's basketball team surged further ahead behind a pair of second frame spurts Wednesday evening to hold off Cloud County Community College 74-67 at the Barton Gym.

The 24th ranked Cougars improve to a Jayhawk West best 5-1 and 13-2 on the season while the T-Birds fall to 2-5 in the Jayhawk East and slip to .500 on the season at 8-8.

Barton will put its' five game winning streak on the line Saturday in Iola, Kansas, in a 4:00 p.m. Top-25 matchup against 22nd ranked Allen County Community College.

Neither team found much separation through the opening twenty minutes as the margin never jumped past three in a seesaw nine lead changes and eight ties.

Barton gained some momentum a minute into the second half jumping out to a 38-31 lead following a Martin Vogts trifecta and pair of layups from Justin Harmon and Desean Munson capping a 7-2 run. Following a 6-0 Cloud County answer just two minutes later that trimmed the margin back to one at 40-39, the Cougars responded scoring five of the next six points sparked by Mavrick Gildyard's old fashion three point play.

The Cougars would put to rest any glimpse of a T-Bird rally with 8:49 remaining growing its' lead to double digits as Harmon posted five of his eleven second half points to lead another mini 9-3 proving to be a final difference maker.

Two Cougars finished in double-digits as Harmon scored a team high twenty on 7-of-12 shooting from the field followed by Vogts eighteen points. Holden dished out a game high three assists while Anthony Atkinson-Enneking led Barton with eight boards to help the Cougars outrebound the T-Birds by three.

Conference leading scorer Jay Lewis led all scorers with 25 points on 10-of-24 shooting from the floor. Iyen Enaruna tallied the lone double-double performance of the evening, chalking up eighteen points and grabbing a game high twelve rebounds. Chad Vincent-Simon rounded out the double figure scorers with ten points off the bench to go along with his team high two assists.

JAYHAWK WEST MEN

Barton 5-1 13-2

Hutchinson 4-2 13-2

Colby 3-2 11-3

Pratt 2-4 8-7

Seward 1-5 8-7

Garden City 1-5 7-8

Dodge City 0-6 8-7

NW Tech 0-7 2-12

JAYHAWK EAST MEN

Allen 7-0 12-4

Cowley 6-1 14-3

Independence 5-2 14-3

Butler 5-2 12-4

Coffeyville 4-3 12-5

Neosho 3-3 7-8

Cloud 2-5 8-8

WEDNESDAY—Allen 88, NW Tech 59; Barton 74, Cloud 67; Coffeyville 73, Colby 56; Cowley 125, Dodge 110; Neosho 72, Garden 67; Independence 95, Seward 89, 2 OT; Hutchinson 98, Kansas City 67; Butler 78, Pratt 55

SATURDAY—Barton at Allen; Butler at Garden; Coffeyville at Dodge; Colby at Independence; Hutchinson at Cowley; Pratt at Cloud; Seward at Neosho; Tabor JV at NW Tech