Barton handed tough loss at Cloud, 61-58
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team continues to look for back-to-back wins for the 1st time since the opening weekend after falling on the road to Cloud County Saturday night. The Cougars lost to the Thunderbirds by a 61-58 count in Arley Bryant Gym at Concordia. Barton is now 8-13 on the season and 3-4 in Jayhawk West play while Cloud County keeps itself in the West race at 4-3 and 11-9 overall.

Highlights
The Cougars had a chance to tie the contest in the final seconds but a Marcus Barrett 3-pointer bounded off the iron and the clock expired as the Cougars grabbed the rebound. The missed shot by Barrett summed up a 2nd half of shooting struggles for both teams but especially the Cougars.

After shooting an impressive 14-of-26 (54 percent) in the opening half, Barton connected on just 8-of-23 from the field in the 2nd stanza. That allowed Cloud County to overcome a 34-28 Barton halftime lead. The Thunderbirds weren't exactly burning the nets in the 2nd 20 minutes of action either, hitting just 9-of-21 shots but 3-of-6 treys and 12-of-17 free throws were enough to make the difference. Barton hit just 8-of-16 from the charity line in the 2nd half.

The Cougars held the lead for most of the contest. Cloud had just a couple 1-point leads late in the 1st half and then once at the 10-minute mark of the 2nd half. But the Cougars still lead by a 50-45 score Diogo Salazar hit 1-of-2 free throws with 7:34 to play in the game. The T-Birds would get the game's next 11 points as Barton went scoreless for nearly 5 minutes of play. The Cougars turned the ball over 3 times and missed two shots during that stretch. Meanwhile Cloud converted nearly every possession. Only once did Cloud not score on its possession – twice the T-Birds missed shots but got offensive rebounds and eventually scored.

That 11-0 gave Cloud a 56-50 lead with 3 minutes to play. The Cougars whittled it down to 3 points and when Cloud's Keddric Mays missed a jumper with 7 seconds left and Caleb Tegtmeier grabbed the rebounded, the Cougars has one last chance to send the game to overtime – a place both games between Barton and Cloud went last year. Barrett took Tegtmeier's outlet pass, drove to the 3-point line and gave a pump fake to get him open. Barrett then fired a good look at the bucket that fell just short.

Barrett and Salazar each scored 14 points to pace the Cougars. Barton's leading scorer, Antanas Kavaliauskas was held to 12 points and did not score in the 2nd half. The Cougars also played the contest without starting sophomore guard Aubrey Bruner, who sat at the end of the bench with a 103 temperature. Cloud was paced by Mays with 21 and Adam Volgelsberg with 15.

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

Next
Wed., Feb. 2 – v Seward County, 7:30 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton County Gym)

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