Picking the most exciting moment of the Barton men’s basketball team’s win over Coffeyville Monday night might be tough.
A 4-point play and seven points in less than 30 second for Jordan Windholz to give Barton the lead late would seem like a good one. As would a cold-blooded 3-pointer by Ezekiel Charles in the final minute to give Barton the lead back.
But it would probably have to go to Dequandre Dentmond and his putback with three seconds left that gave the Cougars the win.
Dentmond’s follow in the waning seconds gave Barton a 79-77 win over the Red Ravens in Jayhawk Conference play. The win kept Barton near the top of the standings with an 8-5 conference mark – good for fifth place.
“We showed a lot of fortitude,” Barton Coach Craig Fletchall said. “After what happened against Hutch to turn around be in the same situation again, our guys could have folded. But we didn’t. We made some big plays, hit some big shots and got some big stops.”
The Cougars (16-8 overall) are two games out of second and three out of first. Perennial power Coffeyville continues its tough season, now 5-8 in the Jayhawk and 12-12 overall.
Barton was in control from the start, jumping to a 9-1 lead, extending it to 33-17. The Cougars took a 39-27 lead to half.
Coffeyville worked its way back into the game in the second half and when Darrion Strong hit a 3-pointer with 10:32 to play to cap a 16-4 run the Red Ravens had their first lead of the game – 53-51.
The teams traded the lead over the next several minutes until another 6-0 Coffeyville run gave the Red Ravens a 65-61 lead with six minutes to play.
Coffeyville held a 72-67 lead when the big moments began for the Cougars. Windholz took a pass from Anthony Smith in the right corner and knocked down a trey. He was fouled on the shot by Gregory Poleon. Windholz made the free throw to make it 72-71 with 3:39 to play.
A turnover gave it back to Barton and Windholz made them pay. This time a trey the right wing – his fifth 3-pointer of the game – at the 3:13 mark gave Barton a 74-72 lead.
The game stayed that way until Strong, an Oklahoma Sooner signee, knocked down another trey with 1:14 left and Coffeyville went back up, 75-74.
Then Charles who had his big moment. Charles got a pass from Windholz in front of the Barton bench and buried his own 3-pointer with 51 seconds left to put Barton back up 77-75.
Delano Spencer tied the game at 77-all with a pair of free throws with 33 seconds to play. With just a few seconds difference between the shot clock and game clock, Barton held the ball for one last shot.
Barton got a good look as Windholz fired a deep three from the left win with seven seconds left. His shot hit the front rim then backboard. Dentmond was there to grab the rebound on the right block. He went immediately back up and banked in the put-back with three seconds left.
Following a timeout the Red Ravens threw away the inbounds pass and Barton escaped with the win.
Windholz finished with a season-high 16 points to lead four Barton players in double figures. Malik McMillan score a career-high 14. Dentmond added 13 points and 11 rebounds. Smith finished with 12 points.
Spencer scored 24 and Strong 20 for Coffeyville to lead all scorers.
Barton will head to Garden City in an effort to put back-to-back wins together for the first time since early January. Barton beat Garden 84-65 in Great Bend earlier this year.
“We would like to get some momentum going back our way,” Coach Fletchall said. “We would like to put some wins together but it won’t be easy. Garden has been playing pretty good basketball lately.