Cougars come up short in upset bid of West leader Garden City
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team came up short in its bid for 3 straight wins for the 1st time this season. Barton battled with the West leading Garden City Broncbusters the entire game but came up on the short end, 57-54, Wednesday night at the Barton County Gym. The Cougars fell to 10-14 with the loss and 5-5 in the West while Garden City improves to 16-7 and 8-1. The Cougars will have Saturday off before traveling to Colby Wednesday for its next action.

Highlights
The Cougars had two opportunities to tie the game in the final minute but failed to get off a shot. Barton had a chance following a Garden City miss but a turnover on a fastbreak with 35 seconds left gave the ball back to Garden. After a missed Garden City free throw, Barton again had an opportunity for the tie but Adam Hrycaniuk dribbled the ball off his foot backing in to the basket. After that the Broncbusters were able to hit their free throws and seal the win.

Barton had trouble shooting from the floor the entire night. The Cougars hit just 23-of-56 shots from the floor during the contest. The Cougars had converted on 50 percent or better during 6 of their last 7 West games. Garden City, meanwhile, converted on just 23-of-54 shots but hit 14-of-26 shots in the 2nd half to overtake the Cougars.

Barton led by as many as 11 points in the opening half but were up just 24-23 at intermission. The Cougars also struggled from the free throw line during the game, hitting just 3-of-11 charity tosses. Garden City wasn't much better at 8-of-18 but it was enough to get the win on the road.

The Cougars were paced by Antanas Kavaliauskas with 19 points and 11 rebounds but he had to work to do. The sophomore center hit just 9-of-22 shots to get his 19 points. Aubrey Bruner added 13 in the loss. Torre Johnson scored 17 points to pace Garden while BJ Walker added 12 points and 12 rebounds.

Stats
Full box scores and stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Wed., Feb. 16 – at Colby, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Community Building)

-30-

Check out Barton County Basketball Online at www.bartonccc.edu/sports