Cougars clinch Jayhawk West title

Cougars clinch Jayhawk West title
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team clinched the Jayhawk West title Wednesday night with a 107-80 win over Cloud County at the Barton County Gym. The West title is the 8th overall for Barton and its 4th in the last 6 years.

The win improves the No. 4 ranked Cougars to 26-3 overall and 13-2 in the West, giving them a 2 game lead over 2nd place Sewrad County. Cloud, meanwhile, ends it regular season at 17-13 and 7-9.

Highlights
The 107 points is the highest point total for the Cougars in conference action this season. It was a big night for freshman Rodney Epperson and sophomore Robert Whaley as both set career highs with 35 points each during the night. The point totals are the highest by any Cougar player since Ebi Ere poured in 40 in the 7th place at the NJCAA National Tournament two years ago. That came after Ere's school-record 52 point effort the previous day at the tournament.

The Cougars jumped to a 48-28 halftime lead, hitting 53 percent of their shots. Barton finished the game at an even 50 percent, knocking down 38-of-76 shots. The Cougars again played the game without starting point guard Randy Pulley due to a shoulder injury. In his absence, Cody Rierson got the start, scoring 5 points and dishing out 5 assists. Richard Chavez also play some point off the bench and handed out a game-high 7 assists. Epperson collected his first double-double of his Cougar career, grabbing a career-high 11 rebounds to go with 35 points.

Cloud was led by Darrell Freeman with 16 points. Dramane Diarra added 12 for the Thunderbirds.

Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
The Cougars finish the regular season on the road Saturday at Dodge City in an 8 p.m. tip. Barton will be home Wednesday for the first round of the Region VI playoffs against either KCK or Fort Scott. That contest will start at 7 p.m.

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