Missed opportunities doom Cougars, suffer overtime defeat
Escaping with a victory the previous night, the Barton Community College men’s basketball team couldn’t take advantage of some late opportunities in Wednesday’s contest and dropped a 78-75 overtime decision to Paris Junior College at the Sonic Shootout in Chanute, Kansas. With a three-point lead and two opportunities to increase the lead in the last two minutes of regulation, the Cougars couldn’t convert and dropped their first game of the season to fall to 13-1. Wrapping up the non-conference portion of their schedule, Barton now will prepare for the grind of the conference season as the Cougars will begin a tough four-game seven-day stretch starting this Saturday in Liberal, Kansas. The Cougars will open with a road trip to face the pre-season conference favorites Seward County Community College before returning home for a Monday contest against Butler Community College. Game time for the Cougars-Saints contest set to begin at 8:00 p.m. at the Seward Greenhouse.
Barton jumped out to a pair of nine-point leads early in the first half and led 19-10 at the 12:20 mark. The Dragons chipped away at the Cougar lead until a Delvin Dickerson field goal with 7:11 to play gave Paris its first lead since the opening bucket. Following three ties, Barton managed to grab the lead briefly before Paris built a pair of four-point leads. The Cougars' Kevin Kuteyi drained a deep guarded three-pointer at the buzzer to cut the deficit to 35-36 going into intermission.
The first seven minutes of the second half belonged to Paris' Antonio Arnold as he buried four of his team high five three-pointers in the first five minutes of the half helping the Dragons build their largest lead of the game at nine points. With the Cougars trailing 56-47 with 12:15 to play, Barton cut the deficit to one in the next five minutes behind five points from Turon Parker. After Paris built the lead back out to four, Barton took the lead back with 2:39 remaining behind back-to-back buckets from Dominique Wilson, the second coming from a pin-point assist from Parker. After an Algie Key basket gave the Cougars a 68-65 lead with 1:52 to play, Barton gave itself two opportunities in the closing minutes to build on the lead but came away scoreless. Trailing by three Paris' Mike Harmon was fouled on a three-point attempt and sank all three charities to tie the game with thirty seconds remaining. The Dragons' Anthony Adams then blocked Key's attempt in the waning seconds as the Cougars were unable to get a good shot off and the teams headed to overtime tied at 68.
The teams traded leads in the first three minutes of extra time before Paris grabbed the final lead with 1:11 to play on an Anthony Adams field goal. Adams, who scored nine of his nineteen points in overtime, gave the Dragons a four point lead with ten seconds left on free throws to ice the game and send Barton to its first defeat of the season.
Algie Key double-double effort led the Cougars as the sophomore All-American scored seventeen points and grabbed ten rebounds. Turon Parker also contributed seventeen to go along with his team high four assists. Despite an off shooting night, Dominique Wilson also reached double-digit scoring with twelve points to go along with eight rebounds. Andell Cumberbatch scored ten points while leading in the team in steals with three.
Averaging only six points per game, sophomore Antonio Arnold had a big night for the Dragons scoring twenty points including five-of-eleven from beyond the arc as the rest of the Paris team were a poultry two-of-thirteen. Also reaching double-figures for the Dragons were Anthony Adams with nineteen and Chris Jones with eleven to go along with a team high eight assists.
For the second game in a row the Cougars allowed a team to shoot over 50% percent as the Dragons finished at 57% meanwhile Barton shot a solid 48%.