Barton continues to roll along in West with win over Dodge

Barton continues to roll along in West with win over Dodge
The Barton Community College men's basketball team stayed unbeaten in Jayhawk West play with an 89-77 win over Doge City Saturday night at the Barton Gym. It was the 1st time the Cougars played at home since late November as Barton improved to 3-0 with a win in its West home-opener. The Cougars, ranked No. 22 in the nation, held off a couple of Dodge City rallies in the 2nd half to improve to 16-1 overall this season. Dodge City fell to 0-3 in the West and 7-10 overall. Barton will be back on the road for the 3rd time in 4 West games when the Cougars travel to Garden City Wednesday for a 7:30 pm tip.

Highlights
Both teams struggled to score in the opening minutes of the contest as the two teams traded the lead for 6 minutes until the Cougars started to warm up. Barton trailed 9-7 when Taaj Ridley hit a 3-pointer that would give Barton a 10-9 lead, which the Cougars would not relinquish the rest of the way. Ridley's trey started an 8-0 run that saw Chip Steven hit a 3 and Nyika Williams finish the run with a layup for a 15-9 lead. Steven would add 2 more treys over the next couple of minutes to keep Dodge City at bay and by the time he hit his 4th 3-pointer in a 4-minute span Barton built its lead to 26-17. The Cougars would push that lead to double figures and eventually take a 45-32 lead to halftime.

But Dodge showed in the 2nd half it wasn't about to go away quietly. The Conqs trimmed the lead to just a single point at 49-48 with 14:43 to play in the half before Steven hit his 5th trey of the game to end a 13-2 Dodge run. Barton led 60-52 when the Cougars scored 7 points in a single possession. It started with a Josh Martin jumper on which he was fouled by Corey Perkins to give Martin a 3-point opportunity. Perkins was then whistled for a technical followed by another technical on Dodge coach Brady Trenkle. Steven hit all 4 technical free throws and Martin followed with a free throw to conclude his 3-point play and suddenly Barton led 67-52.

Dodge again whittled that lead to 7 with just more than 5 minutes to play but that would be as close as the Conquistadors would get the rest of the way. Five Cougars found double figures led by Williams 20 points and 9 rebounds. Steven added 19 points on 5-of-7 3-point shooting and the perfect 4-of-4 on the technical free throws. That is a season-high for Steven who scored a career-high 21 at Garden last year. Corey Bingham scored 14 off the bench while Martin and Marcus Butler added 10. Bingham led Barton with 6 assists and added a career-high 9 rebounds as well. Chuck Coley scored 19 for Dodge with Rodney Clinkscales adding 18.

Barton will head to Garden Wednesday to take on a Broncbuster team that is 1-1 in the conference with a win over Butler and a tough 2-point setback to West co-leader Hutchinson on the road. Barton has won at Garden the last 2 meetings and 8 times in the last 12 years.

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

Next
Jan 14 – at Garden 7:30 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Perryman Center in Garden City)

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