Barton men's bid for season sweep of Butler comes up short

Two months removed from a nineteen point win in El Dorado, the Barton Community College men's basketball team's bid to sweep the season series against Butler Community College came up shy in an 87-84 home defeat Wednesday night.  Barton falls to 11-5 but remains in a second place tie in the Jayhawk standings at 15-5 on the year while Butler remains in the fourth position at 10-6 and 13-6 on the year.  The Cougars will next host Seward County Community College on Saturday in a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.

Digging out of nine point hole to begin the game, the Cougars never led in first half action but clawed back to within two at the break.  Seizing the lead coming out of the locker room, a pivotal 8-0 Butler run with seven minutes to play sent the Cougars clawing back, falling within a possession in taking their second straight loss.  

Malik Rhodes dropped a career high twenty-five points to lead four Cougars in double figures draining 10-of-12 from the charity stripe and a 7-of-15 shooting performance from the field.  Noah Webster continued to give the Cougars a big lift off the bench scoring seventeen points including five three-pointers including clutch bombs keeping Barton within reach.  Anthony Smith and Malik Toppin each added ten points with Toppin helping to lead a seventeen Barton rebound edge grabbing eight boards in twenty minutes of action.  Jahlil Rawley added nine points while leading the Cougars with four assists.

Jacolby Harris led all scorers on the night with thirty points going 11-of-13 from the field as the Grizzlies became the second straight opponent to shoot over 58% against the conference's fourth best rated defense.  Ketarrious Bouchum added fifteen with Will Adler and Johnnathan Lindsey each contributing ten.