Barton moves into 1st place tie atop West with 66-52 win at Dodge

Barton moves into 1st place tie atop West with 66-52 win at Dodge
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team has made its way back to the top of the Jayhawk West standings after a 66-52 win at Dodge City in a rare Sunday afternoon contest. The road win improved Barton to 5-2 in the Jayhawk West and into a 5-way 1st place with Butler County, Colby, Garden City, and Hutchinson. Barton is now 17-4 overall while Dodge City dropped to 3-4 in the West and 11-9 overall.

Highlights
The Cougars led by as many as 9 points in the opening half of action before Dodge City rallied to cut the halftime margin to a single digit with Barton leading by a 28-27 score. Dodge, which led only once in the 1st half, took its 2nd lead of the game in the early stages of the 2nd half at 29-28 on a pair of Corey Lewis free throws with 19:08 to play.

Barton quickly regained the advantage on a Joe Dickens jumper at 33-31 and never gave it up the rest of the way. Barton opened the game with an 11-0 at the midway point of the 2nd half. The Cougars led by a 41-40 score when Rone Smith, JP Batista (3-point play), and Smith again scored on consecutive trips down the floor to make it 48-40.

On Dodge City's next possession, Dickens stole the ball from the Conquistadors' Corey Lewis, who then grabbed Dickens by the waist and attempted to throw him to the floor. Dickens responded by tossing the ball at Lewis and both were assessed a technical foul. That didn't stop the Cougars surge, however, as a pair of Josh Rose free throws and an Aubrey Bruner bucket pushed the lead to 52-40 with less than 9 minutes to play. The closest Dodge City got the remainder of the contest was 8 points.

Batista had another big game for Barton, hitting 8-of-14 shots from the floor for 23 points. The sophomore from Brazil also grabbed 6 rebounds to tie for team-high honors with Justin Rose. Bruner also found double digits with 12 points and added 4 assists – a team-high along with Jose Rose. One of the more impressive stats during the contest was Barton's effort at the free throw line where the Cougars – a 63% shooting team on the season – knocked down 16-of-18 from the charity stripe. Dodge City was led by Anthony Teague with 15.

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

Next
Jan. 28 – v Cloud County, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton County Gym)

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