DODGE CITY, Kan. - Despite leading by as many as 18 in the second half, the Dodge City Community College men's basketball team had to survive a late rally by No. 21-ranked Barton Community College to come away with a 86-79 home win in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference action on Wed., December 7th.
With the win, the Conqs bounced back from Saturday's road loss to improve to 8-3 overall and 5-3 in the KJCCC while the Cougars dropped their second straight game after a 10-0 start to the season to fall to 10-2 overall and 6-2 in the Jayhawk Conference.
Dodge City got off to a quick start, scoring the first seven points of the game before Barton would score eight straight of their own to take an 8-7 lead just four minutes into the game. Things would bounce back and forth between the Cougars and Conquistadors before DC3 would take a 20-15 lead at the media timeout on an 8-0 run. Barton would close the gap to within one point at the 4:06 mark and again at the 2:29 mark as the Conqs would lead by only three at intermission.
Barton would keep things within four points when a
Trevon Evans three with 15:48 left in the game would put Dodge City back up seven at 46-39 and build their lead to 60-49 at the final media timeout of the game. The Conqs would take their biggest lead of the game on a
Mike Jones fastbreak dunk that would send the home crowd into a frenzy. The Cougars would respond and try to chip away at the Dodge City lead, but would have troubles as the Conquistadors would have a 79-65 lead with 3:20 left in the game and appear to be well on their way to a home victory. Things would not go easy though, as an 11-1 Cougar run cut the lead to 80-76 with 1:02 to go and put DC3 in a panic. Clutch free throw shooting would bail out Dodge City, as the Conqs hit their last six free throws of the game with Barton in foul mode to extend the game and find a way to pull out the seven-point win.
"We defended well and didn't give up that many points to Barton until the final three minutes which is my fault on not preparing our guys better" said head coach
Kyle Campbell in a post-game interview with
Damon Post. "Things got hectic, but we found a way to come away with a victory over a really good Barton team."
Dodge City would pound the paint, outscoring Barton 42-28 and score 11 second-chance points compared to eight for the Cougars. As a team, DC3 shot 48.4 percent (31-64) from the field despite struggles from beyond the arc (6-18, 33.3%) and at the free throw line (18-27, 66.7%).
Kourtney Ware would score a game-high 25 points off the bench and add three rebounds while
Josh Boutte had 13 points and 19 rebounds (11 defensive).
Trevon Evans had 14 points and two steals while Trey Grundy finished with 13 points.
A chance to pick up a sixth conference win before holiday break will be up next for the Conquistadors, who travel to Cowley to take on the Tigers at 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 10th. Cowley lost 101-95 at Independence on Wednesday evening.
