Barton rallies for improbable win over Cloud

Barton rallies for improbable win over Cloud
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team was starring right in the face of a 5-game losing streak and a 1st round road game when the ridiculous happened Wednesday night. The Cougars, trailing by 8 points with less than 50 seconds to play, rallied to tie the contest against Cloud County before pulling out the win in overtime. The Cougars eventually won the contest, 90-87 in overtime, at the Arley Bryant Gymnasium in Concordia. The win moves Barton into a tie for the 4th spot in the Jayhawk West at 9-6 in conference action. Barton is now 21-8 overall. Cloud falls to 16-14 and 5-11 to end their regular season. A win Saturday at home against Dodge City would secure a 1st round home game for the Cougars and could move them as high as No. 2 in the West seedings.

Highlights
A back-and-forth 1st half saw Cloud County take the lead late and following a 3-pointer by Barton's Scott Elliott from about 30 feet at the 1st half buzzer, Cloud led 40-38 at intermission. The two teams again traded the lead for the opening 10 minutes of the 2nd half before Cloud County began to take control of the game. The Thunderbirds built their lead to as many as 9 points on a couple of occasions and still lead by 8 in the final minute.

Cloud took their final 8-point lead with 54 seconds left when Adam Vogelsberg hit a pair of free throws for an 80-72 lead. That is when the improbable happened. It started simple enough when Justin Rose knocked down a 3-pointer 46 seconds left to make it an 80-75 game. After a Barton timeout, the Cougars pressure on the inbounds pass forced Cloud into a 5 second call and a key turnover. On the inbounds pass Aubrey Bruner hit Justin Rose in the corner and Rose let fly another 3-pointer, which found the net and cut the lead to 80-78 with still 42 seconds remaining.

That is when the Thunderbirds, who were nearly flawless at the free throw line during the night, missed just enough to give the Cougars life. Tyler Luke fouled Cloud's Omar Guinea with 39 seconds to play but Guinea could only hit 1-of-2 free throws for an 81-78 lead. Bruner took the inbounds pass and jetted down the floor for a layup with still 34 seconds to play to cut the Cloud lead to 81-80. Another foul by Barton, this time by Bruner on Cloud point guard Garrett Farha immediately after the hoop, but the T-Bird sophomore on the line with 33 seconds to play. Farha, like Guinea before him, hit just 1-of-2 free shots to give Cloud an 82-80 lead. The Cougars tied the contest with 21 seconds to play when Barton's JP Batista was fouled and hit both free throws. Cloud's last-second shot by Kenny Simelton, a tough reverse layup attempt in traffic, missed the game went to overtime.

In the overtime, Barton took the lead early and never trailed. Luke hit 1-of-2 free throws and Batista scored on an assist from Luke to give Barton an 85-82 lead with 4:13 left. That is where the game stayed for a while. Cloud finally got on the board at the 1:26 mark when Keddrick Mays hit 1-of-2 free throws to make it 85-83. Two more Barton free throws – 1 by Luke and 1 by Rose – gave Barton an 87-83 lead with less than 30 seconds to play. After Cloud made it 87-85 on 2 Mays free throws, Bruner hit a pair of charity tosses for an 89-85 lead with 18 seconds to play. Cloud wasn't done yet, hitting their 1st field goal of the overtime with 10 seconds left to make it 89-87. Bruner again was fouled with 7 seconds to play, but hit just 1-of-2 to make it 90-87. Cloud's Vogelsberg, a 44 percent 3-point shooter, had an open look to tie the game, but his trey caromed off and Barton had its improbable win.

Batista was 1 of 2 Barton players to record a double-double on the night, collecting 28 points and 14 rebounds for his 6th straight double-double and 12th of the season. Rose joined him with 17 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out in overtime. Rose played the final 12 minutes of regulation and nearly the entire overtime with 4 fouls before fouling out. Bruner added 17 as well to go with 9 assists. Cloud was led by Mays with 23 points. Guinea added 15 and Farha and Vogelsberg each had 12. Vogelsberg, Cloud's leading scorer, had just 1 field goal the entire night – Cloud's only overtime field goal – thanks in large part to the defensive pressure of Laurent Correa, who returned to the starting lineup for Barton.

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

Next
Feb. 28 – v Dodge, 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