The Barton Community College men's basketball team led early but unfortunately, it was one of the few bright spots Saturday afternoon in El Dorado as Butler Community College cruised to an 85-64 victory.
Leading 12-11 five minutes in would be the final Cougar lead as the Grizzlies pieced together a 24-6 run over the next eight minutes building up an eventual 22 point lead at halftime before holding an eventual 27 point second half lead while cruising over the final six minutes.
The second straight loss at the power plant and third straight in the series drops the Cougars to 9-11 in the KJCCC and 15-11 overall. The Grizzlies third straight win improves their conference mark to 13-6 and season mark to 19-6.
Barton will continue its' two game road trip on Monday heading to Liberal, KS to take on the Saints of Seward County Community College in a 8:00 p.m. tip inside the Greenhouse.
Barton finished with its' second lowest shooting percentage of the year hitting just 36.2 percent (25-of-69) of their shots from the field, while struggling even more from beyond the arch hitting on just four-of-24 attempts for 16.7 percent. The Cougars finished on the wrong side of the rebounding side for just the fifth time this season with a minus six (44-38) difference.
Shooting a blistering 64.3 percent through the opening 20 minutes, the Grizzlies cooled down in the second half finishing with a 43.9 percentage from the field connecting on 29-of-66 shots while making 11-of-27 from long distance for a sizzling 40.7 percentage.
Although leading the battle at the free throw line stepping for six more attempts the Cougars missed the free opportunities in sinking just 10-of-27 for 37 percent while Butler connected on 16-of-21 attempts for 76.2 percent.
Leading Barton on the night offensively was Cougar Downing's 20-point performance, as no other player would score more than eight. Evans Kipruto and Modibo Sanogo paced the Cougars on the glass hauling down a team high seven rebounds.
Five Grizzlies finished in double figures, led by Jaden Okon's 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Isaac Ondekane paced the bench scoring adding 14 points and bringing down a team high seven rebounds in 21 minutes of action. Treylon Payne added 13 connecting on 3-of-4 attempts from outside while Eden Holt and Isaiah Williams finish with 12 points apiece.
RECAP
Knotted up at 4-4 following a Myles Thompson layup, a Hannes Saar pick of the pocket lay in four seconds later gave Barton with its' first lead. Barton would produce its' largest lead of three following a Downing splash from outside at the 17 minute mark.
Succeeding a 5-0 Butler response, Trey Bates III's ringing from long range handed the Cougars its final lead at 12-11 with 15:39 to play while the Grizzlies broke the contest open with a 24-6 spurt over the next eight minutes cashing in with a trio of triples ballooning the margin to 36-18.
A personal 5-0 Downing stretch would climb the Cougars back to within 12 at 39-27 with four minutes to play in the opening frame but a 16-6 close by Butler pushed the halftime margin back to 22.
Barton maintained to cut the deficit below 20 twice as a Saar slam and Bates layup sparked a 4-0 run to open the second half. The final push came with 14:03 to play as a Downing layup capped a 6-0 stretch started on a Kipruto layup and mixed between a De'Antray dunk trimming the deficit to within 17 at 62-45.
The lead swelled briefly to 27 points with 5:53 to play as the Grizzlies connected on their 10th of 11 made three points. Josh Jordan scored the eight of the final 10 points as Walker Moore's layup with 27-ticks left rested the score at 85-64.