Barton makes it 3 straight West road wins; host Cloud Wednesday night

Barton makes it 3 straight West road wins; host Cloud Wednesday night

The Barton Community College men's basketball team slipped out of Pratt Saturday night with a 79-72 Jayhawk West win over Pratt, giving Barton 3 straight on the road in the West and 4 of the past 5 overall in conference. The win at Lesh Sports Arena improved Barton to 5-3 in the conference, this after a 0-2 start with road losses at Cloud County and Seward County. The Cougars are 17-5 overall. Pratt fell to 2-6 in the West and 11-11 overall. Barton will get a chance to payback Cloud for the loss to start West play Wednesday when the Thunderbirds pay a visit to the Barton Gym for an 8 pm tip. Seward will be in town Saturday.

Highlights
Despite the 7-point margin it wasn't until the final seconds that Barton was able to relax and enjoy the road win at Pratt. The Cougars trailed only one time very briefly in the contest but were never able to put away the Beavers. Barton led by a single point going into the final minute before outscoring Pratt 7-1 in the final minute of action for the win.

The Beavers had several chanced to tie or overtake the Cougars for a four minute stretch of basketball late but could never do it. Barton took a 72-70 on a pair of free throws by Storm Sanders breaking the game's 4th and final tie with 5:04 to play. The score then stayed that way until 1:51 remained when Pratt finally scored. Pratt missed 3 field goals and 4 free throws during that stretch while Barton missed 5 field goals attempts and all 3 free throws.

Terry Taylor cut the lead to 72-71 with a free at the 1:51 mark but missed the next 2nd shot beginning a barrage at the Pratt end of the floor. Pratt grabbed the offensive rebound off the Taylor but the Beavers missed a 3-pointer. Yet again, Pratt grabbed the offensive rebound and it continued. The Beavers Jon Cathey-Macklin drove the basket and his shot was blocked by Dwayne Brunson, but, one more time, Pratt grabbed the offensive rebound. Cathey-Macklin missed again and, finally, Adam Young hauled down the board for the Cougars with 1:15 left in the game ending a flurry of opportunities for Pratt to take the lead.

Barton inched closer to the win after milking nearly 30 seconds off the shot clock before Brunson knocked down a 17-footer from Sanders to give Barton a 74-71 with 43 seconds to play. The Cougars increased the chances even great the next trip down when Brunson blocked his 6th shot of the game and Young collected yet another board before being fouled with 26 seconds to play. The Cougars would put the game away at the line with Young going 4-for-4 in those final 26 seconds and Colin Beatty hitting 1-of-2 with just 3 seconds to play for the final margin.

Several Cougars starred in the win with Brunson scoring 19 points and grabbing 9 rebounds to go with those 6 blocks and 3 steals. Young ended with 15 points, 18 rebounds and 3 blocks. He snagged 3 straight rebounds on the defensive end down the stretch including that elusive rebound with Pratt vying for the lead. Sanders scored 16 points, hit 4-of-6 3-pointers, dished out 8 assists and did not turn the ball from his point guard spot in 35 minutes of play. Beatty ended the night with 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. The Beavers were led by 19 points from Justin Ikhide and 14 rebounds from Tanner Hayes.

The Cougars, who have played 5 of 8 West games on the road, will get back-to-back home dates this week at the Barton Gym. The Cougars host Cloud and Seward in an opportunity to even the score on 2 of their 3 losses so far in conference play. Barton lost at Cloud 85-78 without Sanders in the lineup then fell at Seward 82-70.

Since that time the Cougars have been unbeatable on the road – winning 3 straight. In fact since a 14-0 run at Garden gave Barton a 21-17 lead at Garden City gave Barton has trailed on the road for a total of 21 seconds in more than 2 1/2 games. Barton took the lead at Garden 8:30 to play in the opening half and trailed briefly to start the 2nd half. That lasted for just 7 seconds before the Cougars regained the lead and never trailed. Barton never did trail at Hutchinson and trailed at Pratt for just 14 seconds during the 1st half.

However, the Cougars have not been as impressive at home, where the next two games will be contested. During that same time span as the nice road numbers have come about, Barton is just 1-1 at home and has trailed a majority of the minutes. The Cougars spent nearly the entire 2nd half and overtime chasing Butler in an 81-77 loss to the Grizzlies at the Barton Gym. Barton also spent about 25 of the final 30 minutes of its home game with Colby behind before rallying then holding off the Trojans for a 65-64 win. The Cougars trailed by as many as 15 in that game. Tip for both Cloud Wednesday will be at 8 pm in the Barton Gym.  

Stats
Stats can be found was www.bartonsports.com  

Next
Feb 2 – v Cloud 8 pm (Jayhawk West game at the Barton Gym in Great Bend)