Dodge City men's basketball team closed out the regular season with a tough battle against Barton, securing the 87-86 win late with free throws giving the Conquistadors their first win over the Cougars in Great Bend since 2016.
The win moves the Conqs to 26-4 on the season and 21-3 in the KJCCC. The Conqs won the KJCCC title by four games, while also sweeping the top of half of the Conference. Conqs also earned the #1 seed in the Region VI Tournament and a first-round bye and will host the Quarterfinals on Tuesday, March 1st, and play the winner of the first-round game between Colby and Cloud County at 7:00 pm.
Both teams traded blows as the contest was back-and-forth throughout the first half with each team holding the lead multiple times as neither team led by more than five in the first half with Barton taking a 44-41 lead into intermission. Early in the second half, Barton put together a run to make the contest a 10-point game at 57-47 but the Conqs pushed back going on an 8-0 run to draw within two points. Conqs would them put together another run this time a 7-0 run to take their first lead in the second half and go up 64-61. The lead would change hands multiple times down the stretch and the Conqs would get late free throws by
Oumar Koureissi,
BJ Freeman, and
Themus Fulks to secure the win as Barton hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to make it a one-point final score of 87-86.
Conqs continued to shoot the ball well as they shot 49.2% from the floor and went 23-32 from the free-throw in the contest.
Six Conqs scored double figures on the night led by Fulks who finished with 16 points including two free throws with less than 10 seconds to go to secure the win.
Kalen Williams added 14 points and six rebounds, while Koureissi tallied 14 points.
Nick Pringle had another double-double finishing with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Freeman scored 12 points and
Kerwin Prince posted 12 points.
Conqs head into the postseason riding a nine-game win streak and will be back in action at home on Tuesday, March 1st in the Region VI Tournament Quarterfinals against the winner of the Colby versus Cloud County first-round game at 7:00 pm.
