No. 3 ranked Barton Community College cruised past Colby Community College 74-57 to stay tied for first place in the Jayhawk Conference atandings.
The Cougars scored the first 11 points and held the Trojans to 13 first half points before increasing its 18-point halftime lead to 30 points in cruising the final 8:23 earning its seventh straight win of the series.
Barton (17-1, 11-1) scored its eighth straight win to tie Cowley College (16-2, 11-1) for first place.
Barton plays the Jayhawk's worst team Independence (1-17, 0-12) Wednesday. Barton's Hall of Fame Day night is Saturday against Pratt at 7:30 p.m.
Seven Cougars scored in the afternoon matinee with four reaching double figures led by Lajae Jones' 18 points.
Ring Malith, who started the day's scoring before canning a three-pointer to begin second half action finished with 13 points on 3-of-6 behind the arc and grabbed 8 rebounds.
Spark plugs off the bench Keandre Kindell and Brent Moss again created problems for the defense in a combined 24 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and a steal. Kindell put up 13 points with 4 assists while Moss added his usual high-flying dunks within his 11 points and 3 assists, to go along with 6 rebounds helping Barton to a plus-6 rebound advantage.
The Cougars had 17 assists on their 26 made field goals, Mozae Downing-Rivers leading the game with 5 assists on Barton's 46.4% shooting.
D'Necco Rucker dropped 4-of-7 behind the arc to lead the Trojans (6-12, 2-10) with 19 points. Christian Larry added 17 points with Maxence Massadilla finishing with 11 points and a game high seven assists.
Shooting just 13.8% in their thirteen point first half, Colby heated up in second half play putting 44 points on the board and 50% shooting including 9-of-15 in the final twenty minutes to even out at 33.3% for the game.
NOTES—Barton has won the last 7 in the series. Barton has won 7-of-the-last-10 in Great Bend. Barton leads the series in Great Bend 35-4. Barton leads the overall series 61-14.
Colby 13 44 — 57
Barton 35 39 — 74
COLBY—Rucker 7-16 1-3 19, Larry 6-12 3-6 17, Massadila 4-13 1-4 11, Mailath-Pok 2-3 0-0 4, Malekinusic 2-11 0-1 6, Carlson 0-7 0-0 0, Akok 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 21-63 5-14 57.
BARTON—Jones 6-10 5-5 18, Malith 5-9 0-0 13, Kindell 3-8 6-6 13, Moss 5-13 1-2 11, Jackson 3-4 2-2 8, Thompson 2-5 1-1 5, Downing-Rivers 1-4 0-1 2, Bowen-Webb 0-2 0-0 0, Surakat 1-1 2-2 4, Totals 26-56 17-19 74.
3-pointers—C 10-28 (Rucker 4-7, Larry 2-4, Massadila 2-4, Malekinusic 2-10, Carlson 0-3); B 5-19 (Malith 3-6, Kindell 1-3, Jones 1-3, Downing-Rivers 0-1, Thompson 0-1, Jackson 0-1, Moss 0-2, Bowen-Webb 0-2). Rebounds—C 35 (Malekinusic 8); B 41 (Malith 8). Assists—C 11 (Massadila 7); B 17 (Downing Rivers 5). Steals—C 6 (Larry 2, Massadila 2); B 5. TO—C 12, B 14.
JAYHAWK MEN
Barton 11-1 17-1
Cowley 11-1 16-2
Hutchinson 10-2 15-3
Butler 9-3 14-4
Cloud 8-4 13-5
Garden City 7-5 11-7
Coffeyville 5-7 9-9
Dodge City 5-7 7-11
Seward 4-8 6-12
NW Tech 3-9 7-11
Pratt 3-9 5-12
Colby 2-10 6-12
Independence 0-12 1-17
1-20—Barton 74, Colby 57; Coffeyville 91, Independence 64; Hutchinson 85, Garden City 64; Seward 82, Pratt 70; Cloud 86, NW Tech 75
1-21—Cowley 77, Butler 58
1-24—Barton at Independence; Dodge City at Hutchinson; Garden City at Colby; Coffeyville at Pratt; Cloud at Seward; Cowley at NW Tech
