Cougars season comes to end in Region VI Title contest

Cougars season comes to end in Region VI Title contest 
It has been a season to remember for the Barton County Community College men's basketball. But that season, which brought the Cougars back to national prominence, ended short Tuesday night a game short of the NJCAA National Tournament. Barton made it to the Region VI title tilt, but came up short, falling to Coffeyville, 69-61 at Koch Arena in Wichita. The loss ended Barton's season at 27-7. It was the 1st year the Cougars were eligible for the post season since the 2004 season, when Barton also lost to Coffeyville in the Region VI finals. It was the 2nd straight Region VI title for the Red Ravens and the 5th in the past 7 years.

Highlights
This time there would be no last minute heroics from Omar Johnson. But Barton would not go away quietly. Down by 9 late with 3 minutes to play, the Cougars fought back and when Johnson hit a pair of free throws with 1:27 to play, Barton had trimmed the Red Raven lead to 60-56. The Cougars nearly got it to 2 points with 50 seconds to play, but Johnson's runner rolled out as did a tip by Ivan Evans. From there, it was a matter of the Red Ravens hitting their free throws – which they did just fine down the stretch, converting on 9-of-10 in the final minute of play.

A big series in the game came with just more than 4 minutes left. After numerous misses and offensive rebounds on the Coffeyville end of the floor, Daniel Payne knocked down what was the dagger to the Cougars. Barton trailed 57-51 with just less than 4 minutes when Coffeyville missed an inside shot and then a tip, another tip, and a a 3rd tip. Finally the ball was knocked out to the perimeter where Payne ran it down, and hit a long 3-pointer to give the Ravens a 60-51 lead and put Barton in a big hole late. Offensive rebounds will be big for the Ravens the entire 2nd half as the Red Ravens corralled 14 offensive in the 2nd half alone. Coffeyville scored 16 2nd chance points in the contest to just 5 for Barton.

Both teams got off to quick starts in the opening half with Barton holding a slim lead most of the way. The Cougars led at the half by a 31-25 margin. But Coffeyville came out in the 2nd half and shut down the Cougars, giving up just 7 points the opening 8 minutes. That allowed Coffeyville to build a 5-point lead on Barton, 43-38 with 12 minutes to play.

That is when the Cougars began to battle back. An Omar Johnson trey and an Ivan Evans dunk and free throw gave the Cougar the lead and started an 8-0 run for a 48-45 lead. But back came Coffeyville with a 9-0 run of their own for a 54-48 lead with 5 minutes to go when Tarod Sanders scored. But another 3-point play by Evans ended the run and kept Barton in the game for a while longer.

Evans led Barton with 22 points, followed by Johnson with 17. They were the only 2 Cougars to reach double figures in the contest. The Cougars struggled from the floor in the loss, hitting just 17-of-50 shots from the floor. Barton also committed 18 turnovers in the game which led to 17 Red Raven points. Coffeyville was led by Payne with 18 while Barry Eberhardt added 16. Eberhardt was named the Region VI Tournament MVP.

Johnson, Evans, and Cordeiro were all selected to the 11-member All-Region Tournament team. In addition to Eberhardt, the Ravens placed Payne and point guard JJ Seymour on the team. Michael Tyree of Seward and Charlie Coley of Dodge both made the team as did West Cloud's Cassin Diggs and Kendall Russell along with Julian Allen of Garden.

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