Cougars win another dogfight with Seward at the Barton Gym, 86-80

Cougars win another dogfight with Seward at the Barton Gym, 86-80
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team has not made things boring for their fans of late. Coming off back-to-back overtime games, the Cougars locked up in another battle to the final minute before defeating Seward County, 86-80 at the Barton Gym Monday. The game was a make-up from Saturday's postponed date. The Cougars didn't put the game away until the final 30 seconds when Omar Johnson went coast-to-coast and Blaine Clark followed with a pair of free throws for a 6-point lead. Barton, ranked No. 12 in the nation, moves to 16-1 overall this season and 3-1 in the Jayhawk West, tied for the top spot in the conference.  The Saints fell to 1-2 in the West and 10-6 overall. Barton will travel to Garden City Wednesday to take on the Broncbusters.

Highlights
The contest saw 8 lead changes and 5 ties with Barton taking the lead for the final time at the 4:42 mark on a fast-break layup by Ivan Evans off an Omar Johnson pass. That sparked a 7-2 Barton run saw that the Cougar go from 1 down to a 77-73 lead with 1:51 left on two more points from Evans, this time on free throws. The lead reached 5 before a 3-pointer by Seward made it an 80-78 game with still 35 seconds to play.

That is when Johnson got the inbounds pass, bolted down the floor, split a pair of Saints with a between the leg dribble and hit a driving layup just 8 seconds after the Seward to give Barton an 82-78 lead with 27 seconds to play. Two Clark free throws with 13 seconds to play secured the game, giving Barton an 84-78 lead.

Barton shot better than 50 percent from the floor for the 1st time in West action, hitting 30-of-59 from the field. The Cougars knocked down 8-of-22 3-pointers in an effort to counter a 14-of-35 effort by Seward including an 8-of-15 night behind the arc from Michael Tyree.

Evans led Barton with 16 points followed by Johnson with 15 and Thiago Cordeiro with 14. Evans and Cordeiro each had 9 rebounds while Johnson handed out 9 assist for Barton. The Saints were led by Tyree with 24 – 1 of 4 Saints in double figures. Seward turned the ball over just 9 times in the game.

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

Next
Wed, Jan 17 – at Garden, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Perryman Center in Garden City)

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Check out Barton County Basketball Online atwww.bartonccc.edu/sports