Barton pulls off upset; hands Cloud 1st home loss of season

Barton pulls off upset; hands Cloud 1st home loss of season
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team did something not other team had done all season Saturday night in Concordia – defeat Cloud County in the cozy environment of Arley Bryant Gymnasium. Barton had to survive a miscalculation of a couple of inches and missed 90-footer by a couple of inches in overtime to hand the Thunderbirds the loss, 71-70. The loss dealt a blow to Cloud's West title hopes as well as give it its only home loss of the year in the regular season home finale at Bryant Gym. The win improved the Cougars to 17-11 overall this year and 5-9 in West play. Cloud fell to 10-5 in the West and 21-8 overall. Barton has two more home contests left in its season, hosting Dodge City and Seward County in the final week.

Highlights
The Cougars pulled off what is probably the upset of the season in the West with only 9 players in uniform. That has been the case the past 2 games as AJ Martin is gone for the year with a wrist injury and Dominique White was dismissed from the team. The Cougars fell behind by 7 midway through the 1st half and never lead the entire opening 20 minutes of action. Barton trimmed the lead to 1 momentarily but trailed 30-25 at halftime.

Cloud continued to hold the lead until a barrage of 3-pointers by the Cougars – namely Reggie Love – the only sophomore left for the Cougars. The stretch started with a Shaun James layup to cut a 40-34 Cloud lead to 4 points. Love then made it 40-39 with his 1st trey of the run. Love followed up pull-up 3's the next 2 possessions to give the Cougars a 45-42 lead. Joel Stucky then joined the fun with the Cougars 4th trey in 4 trips down the floor when he knocked a 3-pointer down from the left corner, right in front of the Barton bench, for 6-point lead. A James free throw capped a 15-3 run the Cougars to give Barton a 49-42 advantage with 11:13 left. The Cougars held that lead until 3:48 left in the game when Cloud tied it at 55-all. The Thunderbirds briefly took a 1-point lead late in the game but a Thiago Cordeiro free throw with 59 seconds to play tied the game at 58-all. Neither team scored in its final possession and the game went to overtime.

Barton immediately took the lead in overtime, but Cloud answered just about every Barton basket a the 1st 3 minutes saw 4 ties. The Cougars finally pushed the lead to 3 points a long rebound by Love off a missed 3 by Cloud. Love found a streaking Ivan Evans for a dunk and a 67-64 lead with 1:33 to play. Barton had several chances to put the game away over 1:30, but hit just 4-of-10 free throws to leave the door open for Cloud. It looked like James Williams had taken advantage of that opening with 1 second to play. Following a pair of free throws by Stucky to give Barton a 71-68 lead with 5 seconds to play, Williams drove down, pulled up and hit what the crowd thought had sent the game to a 2nd overtime when they erupted after what appeared to be a 3-pointer. But the official nearest the play immediately began signaling 2-pointer, saying Williams's foot was on the line. A very quick foul by Cloud but Stucky on the line with 0.7 seconds to play. Stucky missed the 1st free throw then intentionally missed the 2nd free throw, forcing the T-Birds to hit a shot the length of the court to win the game. Cloud did just about that as BJ Nimocks grabbed the rebound, turned and threw the ball toward the basket 90 feet away. The ball hit the backboard then front rim before bounding in the air, giving Barton the upset win.

Evans led Barton with 18 points, followed by Love with 15 and Cordeiro with 13. Cordeiro just missed his 2nd triple-double of the season as he added 11 rebounds and 9 rebounds before fouling with 24 seconds left in overtime. Cordeiro now has 128 blocks this year, 2nd all-time for a single season at Barton. James had 10 rebounds in the win. Heath Baird led 3 T-Birds in double figures with 19.

Barton will be at home Wednesday against Dodge City then host Seward County in the season finale Saturday at the Barton County Gym.

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

Next
Sat., Feb. 25 – at Cloud County, 8 pm (Jayhawk West play at Bryant Gym in Concordia)

-30-

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