Barton falls to Seward; beaten at home for 1st time this season

Barton falls to Seward; beaten at home for 1st time this season
The Barton Community College men's basketball team stumbled at home for the 1st time this year, losing to the defending Region VI Champions Wednesday night at the Barton Gym. Barton fell to Seward 77-65, snapping a 3-game win streak and tightening the race in the Jayhawk West. Barton still holds a 1-game lead in the West with an 8-2 mark. The Cougars are 21-3 overall. Barton is a full game up on Butler (7-3) and at least 2 1/2 games ahead of the rest of the field with 6 games to play. Seward – with back-to-back wins – has moved to 5-5 in the West and 18-6 overall. The Cougars will attempt to get back on track Saturday in Dodge City. The contest will tip at 4 pm at the Civic Center.

Highlights
Barton jumped out to a 12-2 lead on the Saints during the 1st 4 minutes of the contest. But the offense went cold after that. The Cougars were able to score just 13 points the final 16 minutes of the half and went to the intermission down 29-25. The Cougars trailed by 7 at one point late in the half. The 13 turnovers by Barton in the half resulted in 16 Seward points – more than half the Saints total.

Things didn't get much better for the Cougars early in the 2nd half. Seward opened with a 10-3 run to grab a 39-28 lead with just less than 16 minutes to play and by the midway point of the half Seward had a 54-38 lead. The Cougars were able to get the lead down to 6 with 4 minutes left and had 2 possessions to cut the margin even more but turned it over once and missed a 3-pointer. From there Seward went on a quick 4-0 run to push the lead back to 10 with 3 minutes to play. The Cougars never made a serious challenge after that.

Barton ended the contest with 23 turnovers – the 4th time in the past 5 games Barton has topped the 20-turnover plateau and 5 of the last 7. Prior to that, the Cougars had turned the ball over more than 20 times just once – the loss to Cecil College (Md). Against the Saints those 23 miscues resulted in 30 Seward points. Barton scored 7 points off 14 Seward turnovers.

The Cougars were led by Chip Steven with 14 points but it took a 4-of-14 effort on 3's for Steven to reach that total as Barton struggled to just 39 percent shooting from the field and 28 percent on 3-pointers. Taaj Ridley added 13, Nyika Williams 12 and Marcus Butler 11. Williams added 10 rebounds giving him back-to-back double-doubles and 3 in the last 4. Thinjin Moses had a big night for the Saints, scoring 21 points. Jon Tassin added 18 including a 9-of-10 effort at the free throw line mostly late in the contest. Seward hit 20-of-25 from the line – 18-of-21 in the 2nd half.

Barton will look to avoid back-to-back losses – something hasn't happened to them since the start of Jayhawk West play last season when the Cougars started 0-3 – when it travels to Dodge City for a 4 pm tip Saturday at the Civic Center. Dodge City is coming off its biggest win of the year – a 71-68 road win at Hutchinson Wednesday night. The Conquistadors are 3-7 in the West and 10-14 overall.

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

Next
Feb 7 – at Dodge 4 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Civic Center in Dodge City)

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