Barton ends skid with 70-66 win over Garden City

Barton ends skid with 70-66 win over Garden City

The Barton Community College men's basketball team snapped free from its 3-game losing streak with a 70-66 win over Garden City Thursday night at the Barton Gym in Great Bend. Barton battled back from an 8-point 2nd half deficit for the win to even its Jayhawk West record. Barton is now 6-6 in the West in what has turned into a large group fighting for 2nd thru 7th. The Cougars are 18-8 overall. Garden City entered the contest in 2nd place in the West, falling to 6-5 in the conference and 17-8 overall. The Cougars are back on the road Saturday to take on Butler, fresh off a win over Hutchinson Thursday night as well. Butler is 5-6 in the West and 15-10 overall. The Grizzlies won the 1st match up of the year in Great Bend.

Highlights 
Barton led most of the opening half of action but, as has been the case recently, led that lead slip away in the 2nd half. Garden City built the lead to as much as 8 on a pair of occasions, the latest coming at the 8:32 mark of the game following a technical foul on Barton Coach Craig Fletchall. The ensuing free throws gave the Broncbusters a 58-50 lead.

But the technical also seemed to light a fire under the Cougars on both ends of the floor. Barton went on a 9-0 run over the next couple of minutes, taking the lead on an Adam Young 3-pointer with 6 minutes to play. Garden would tie the game at 59 after a free throw before the Cougars would take the lead for good on a pair of Dwayne Brunson free throws.

The Cougars would get the lead to 66-62 on a 3-pointer by Storm Sanders that beat the shot clock with 1:31 play but Garden wasn't done. An Andre Phillips 3-pointer with 36 seconds to play trimmed the margin back to one but Adam Young and Colin Beatty would each go 2-for-2 at the line in the final 30 seconds for the win. The Broncbusters scored just 4 points for nearly an 8-minute stretch following the technical, scoring 4 more in the final 30-plus seconds for a total of 8 points in the final 8:32 of the game.

Brunson and Sanders each scored 18 for the Cougars followed by Beatty with 11. Brunson made his night a double-double with 11 rebounds. It was his 3rd straight double-double and 8th of the season for the freshman. Sanders handed out 6 assists and made 4-of-6 3-pointers. The rest of the team went 1-for13 from behind the arc.

Barton shot 47 percent from the field in the win, despite hitting just 5-of-19 3-pointers. From inside the arc, Barton hit a sizzling 18-of-30 for 60 percent. Barton hit 19-of-31 free throws including 6-for-6 in the final 2:23. Garden City on the other hand knocked down 11 3-pointers in the game – nearly half its field goals made. Chauncy Williams scored 14 for the Broncbusters and Jarwand Rheubottom added 10.

Barton and Butler are two of four teams with 6 losses in the West this season as the battle for a home playoff game in the West is in full force among six teams for 3 spots. Seward County (10-2) can clinch at least a share of the West title with a home win over Cloud County (6-4) Saturday. Those two are followed in the West standing by 5-loss Garden and the quartet of 6-loss teams with 4 or 5 games remaining for most teams.

Stats 
Stats can be found was www.bartonsports.com

Next 
Feb 12 – at Butler 7:30 pm (Jayhawk West game at the Power Plant in El Dorado)