A typical game of "two halves", the Barton Community College men's basketball team squandered an eighteen point halftime lead to lose 83-80 Saturday night at the Barton Gym to Pratt Community College to open Jayhawk Conference play for both teams. Barton slips to 12-5 on the season while Pratt improves to 11-6. The Cougars will look to rebound on Wednesday as Barton will host Dodge City Community College in a 7:30 p.m. tip-off at the Barton Gym.
Pratt began the second half on a 15-4 run to close the gap to seven, but a 7-0 run by Cougars pushed the lead back out to a fourteen only to have the Beavers respond with a 8-0 stretch to cut the deficit to six with 11:31 yet to play. It took Pratt six more minutes to take its first lead of the game and built the lead out to five with 2:21 to play. Back came the Cougars on a pair of Trey Unrau free throws and seven points from Tyler Corley to tie the game with fifty seconds to play. Following a Pratt timeout, Javis Flynn dished out his game leading sixth assist feeding Kaion Seales on a baseline cut to give the Beavers a two-point lead with twenty-seven seconds remaining. Darius Gibson would tie the game for the fourth and last time, knocking down two clutch free throws with fifteen seconds remaining. Against pressure defense Pratt's Deshun Roberts found Rob Davis in the deep left baseline corner and the freshman from Detroit drained the game-winning three-point shot in front of the Beaver bench with .9 seconds on the clock. Tyler Corley's attempt from midcourt banged off the backboard and Pratt won for only the ninth time on Barton's home floor.
The sophomore transfer duo of Darius Gibson and Tyler Gibson led only three Cougars in double-digit scoring with twenty-two and twenty points respectively. Despite playing only twenty-two minutes due to foul trouble, Raheem Johnson posted his fifth double-double of the season in scoring twelve points and ten rebounds.
In addition to hitting the game winner, Rob Davis led Pratt in scoring with twenty-one points. Deshun Roberts scored sixteen while Kevin Allen took advantage of the Cougars having big men in foul trouble to score fifteen. Javis Flynn just missed reaching double figures with nine points but dished out a game-high six assists.