Barton rebounds from loss at Hutch with big win over Colby

Barton rebounds from loss at Hutch with big win over Colby
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team earned a home Jayhawk West win Saturday night, rolling to an 88-73 win over Colby at the Barton Gym. The win was the 1st home win of the West season for Barton, after dropping its 1st 2 home conference games. The Cougars are now 3-5 in the West, playing 5 of those 1st 8 on the road the 1st time through the conference slate. Barton lost Wednesday at league-leading Hutchinson 93-77. The Cougars improved to 15-6 overall with the win over Colby while Colby fell to 2-5 in the West and 6-15 overall. Barton will be off for a week before host Pratt Saturday at 8 pm.

Highlights
The contest was a typical Barton conference game in many aspects as the Cougars fell behind early by as many as 6 (15-9) before rallying. Barton took its 1st lead of the game at 18-15 on a Chris Jackson 3-pointer at the 12:45 of the 1st half. The teams traded the lead back and forth the rest of the half with 7 lead changes and 6 ties in the opening 20 minutes of play.

Barton took the lead for good on another Jackson 3-pointer with 1:51 to play in the half, giving Barton a 42-41 lead and starting an 8-0 run to end the half. As has also been typical for Barton this year, it was a Jackson run that sparked the Cougars. This was no different as Jackson scored all 8 points in the run. Jackson added a layup and free throw the following trip down the floor and knocked down a jumper with 8 seconds left for the 6-point lead at intermission. In the opening 20 minutes of action, Jackson scored 16 points for Barton.

Barton quickly pushed the lead to double digits to start the 2nd half and took the lead as high as 20 points following a Javon Parris fast break dunk. That gave Barton a 69-49 lead with 8:47 to play. Then, unfortunately for the Cougars, another typical aspect of the West season showed up – Barton's inability to put teams away. Colby scored 15 of the game's next 18 points, cutting Barton's lead to 72-64 with 5:49 still top lay.

But the Cougar didn't fold. For the 2nd straight time (over 3 games) the Cougars regained their composure after allowing a big lead to be cut to single digits and put the Trojans away. Just like at Butler the last time, Barton responded, this time keyed by a Qa'rraan Calhoun 3-pointer which pushed the lead to 11. Barton eventually got the lead back to 14 points with just less than 3 minutes to play and eventually as high as 17 points in the final minute.

Jackson finished with 21 for the Cougars, leading 5 players in double figures. It was the 1st time since mid November the Cougars put 5 players in double figure scoring. Calhoun finished with 13, Parris and Sandy Perry 12, and Chip Steven had 11. Matt Simmons grabbed 12 rebounds to pace the Cougars and also adding a team-high 6 assists. Andrew Engel, Mike Boyd and Koance Davis all scored 16 to lead Colby.

In the loss at Hutch, Barton was led by Jackson with 20 while Parris and Calhoun added 14 each. Nyika Williams had 10 point and 9 rebounds.

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

Next 
Sat Feb 2 – v Pratt, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton Gym in Great Bend)

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