The 12th ranked Barton Community College men's basketball team was unable to overcome a cold night shooting falling 82-74 to Garden City Community College to open up conference play.
Falling for the first time this year and for the third straight year to begin KJCCC play, the 6-1 Cougars will look to get back on track Tuesday night on the road against Cowley College in a 7:30 p.m. tip, while the receiving vote in the latest national poll Broncbusters keep their perfect season alive at 7-0.
Shooting an overall season low 35.6% from the field, long range shooting woes were a big story line as the Cougars shot below the 20% mark for the third straight contest, connecting on just 5-of-28 attempts beyond the arc finishing on a season low 17.9% performance.
RECAP
Trailing for the majority of the first stanza, an 8-0 stretch led by five of De'Antray Hughes team leading 18 points handed Barton its' first lead of the contest at 21-19 with 6:59 to play.
Outscored by five over the next 5:08, a 6-0 Barton answer ensued from a Keith Robinson jumper and pair of perfect trips at the charity stripe by Josh Jordan and Myles Thompson giving the Cougars its' largest lead of the half, 33-30. The Broncbusters countered with the next four points over the remaining 1:07 taking the visitors to the locker room on the top side of a 34-33 halftime advantage.
Grabbing the lead three separate times over the opening seven minutes of the second half, Barton saw its' final lead coming at the 12:01 mark as a Jordan jumper capped a 6-2 stretch that began on a Thompson layup and Hughes flush.
The Broncbusters seized control of the game rattling off 11 of the next 14 points over the next three-plus minutes behind the hot shooting of Tone Hunter. The freshman caught fire for Garden City adding nine of his 20 second half points over the next four minutes handing Garden City the lead for good at 61-55 with 8:23 remaining.
Back-to-back Thompson and Downing layups pulled the Cougars to within 63-61 with 6:08 to play but Hunter's third triple of the second half sparked a 9-2 Broncbuster stretch in widening their lead to its largest of ten points in the final minutes.
STATS
Hughes led the Cougars recording his first collegiate double-double with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field while pulling down a game and career high 13 rebounds. Held to just 1-of-6 shooting in the opening stanza, Downing added 14 of his 16 point total behind 5-of-11 shooting in the second half. Thompson concluded the double-figure scoring for Barton leading the bench with 13 points and hauling in five rebounds.
Garden City finished with two in double-figures with Hunter leading the charge with a game high 30 points on 10-of-25 shooting. Josh Nwankwo rounded out the double-digit scoring for the Broncbusters tallying 26 points behind 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 12-of-16 from the charity stripe. Micah Octave led the team with eight rebounds as Hunter and Riny Lual distributed a team high two assists.