Barton drops 2nd straight West game with 76-66 loss to Butler County

Barton drops 2nd straight West game with 76-66 loss to Butler County
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team lost back-to-back games for the 1st time this season when Butler County came into Great Bend and defeated the Cougars. Barton fell on its home floor by a 76-66 score to Butler Wednesday night at the Barton County Gym. The Cougars trailed throughout the contest as they fell to 2-2 in the Jayhawk West and 14-4 overall this season. The win improved the Grizzlies to 2-2 in the West as well – a logjam of 5 teams are 2-2 – and 13-5 overall. Barton will tangle with another 2-2 team in the West Saturday as Hutchinson pays a visit to the Barton County Gym.

Highlights
The Cougars' lone lead of the contest came when Reggie Love knocked down the 1st Barton shot of the game for a 2-0 lead just more than 1 minute into the game. Butler would follow with a 10-0 run and would never trail again. The Grizzlies spent much of the 1st half with a double digit lead before the Cougars closed the gap to 33-25 at halftime. The biggest lead of the half for the Grizzlies came at 31-16. It was a half that saw the Cougars turn the ball over 18 times, allowing Butler to take 16 more shots in the half.

The 2nd half was spent with Butler building a 10-12 point lead and Barton cutting it to 5-6 points. The closest Barton got in the half – and game for that matter – was when Love knocked down a 3-pointer with 8:21 to play to make it a 53-51 game. Barton, however, would not score for the next 3 minutes in the contest as Butler built their lead back to 11 points at 62-51 with a 9-0 run. The lead got as high as 18 points for Butler in the final stages of the game.

The Cougars ended the contest with a season-high 31 turnovers and their 3rd lowest scoring output of the season. Due to the 31 turnovers, Barton put up a season low 50 shots in the game, hitting just 20 – the 2nd lowest total of the year. Dominique White led Barton with 19 points, hitting 11-of-13 free throws for the bulk of that scoring. White also had 4 assists but was 1 of 3 Barton players to have at least 5 turnovers, recording 8. Chris Berry added 13 points and 5 turnovers while Ivan Evans was held to a season low 9 points and committed a season-high 7 turnovers. Love added 10 points and 8 boards while Shawn James led the Cougars with 9 rebounds. Corey Bailey scored 24 for Butler to lead all scorers.

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

Next
Sat., Jan 21 – v Hutchinson, 8 pm (Jayhawk West game at the Barton County Gym)

-30-

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