Barton drops home contest to Butler; No. 7 Hutch next

Barton drops home contest to Butler; No. 7 Hutch next
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team lost its first home game of the season, falling to Butler County 58-57 at the Barton County Gym Wednesday night. The loss was the 2nd straight for the 15-4 Cougars and dropped them to 3-2 in the Jayhawk West. Butler is now 14-5 overall and 4-1 in the West, tied with Hutchinson for the top spot. Hutch visits Barton Wednesday night.

Highlights
The two teams traded the lead for most of the first half of action before a 12-5 Barton to end the first half gave the Cougars a 32-27 lead at halftime. Barton maintained throughout the 2nd half as it bounced from 3 to 8 points most of the way. The Cougars looked comfortably in control as late as a 57-50 lead with just more than 1 minute to play. But an 8-0 run by Butler in the game's final 1:02 of play allowed the Grizzlies to pull out the win.

The Cougars committed a pair of turnovers and took an ill-advised shot in the final minute to allow Butler the chance to win the game. The Grizzlies took advantage, knocking down a 3-pointer with 20 seconds to play to make it 57-55 then after a Cougars turnover, hit another trey with 7 seconds left for the eventual win.

Barton was paced by 18 points from JP Batista followed by Justin Rose and Tyler Luke with 11 each. The Cougars turned the ball over 19 times in the contest including 13 in the 2nd half. Butler was led by Chris Lee with 17.

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

Next
Jan. 21 – v Hutchinson (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton County Gym)

-30-

Check out Barton County Men's Basketball Online at www.bartonccc.edu/sports