A pivotal second half stretch Monday night sent the Barton Community College men's basketball team to a 94-84 loss at Garden City Community College.
Trailing by four at the halftime break and down by just six points five minutes later, the Cougars played catch up the final nine minutes as Garden City broke open the contest behind an 18-2 stretch including a 13-0 run digging Barton a twenty-one point hole. The Cougars hung around to eventually close the deficit into single digits for the final four minutes but couldn't draw any closer than eight as Garden City would hold on for their fifth straight victory of the season.
The loss drops Barton to 4-8 in conference and 10-8 overall while Garden City improves to 7-5 in league and 13-5 on the year.
The Cougars look to rebound following a few days rest in welcoming Cowley College to the Barton Gym on Saturday in a 4:00 p.m. tip-off.
Cougar Downing pieced his second biggest output in the Barton uniform, netting 28 points leading five Cougars in double-digit scoring. Myles Thompson came off the bench for 13 points, Hannes Saar with 12 points, and Evans Kipruto added 10 points. Joseph Locandro also added 10 points in coming off the bench, grabbing a team high 10 rebounds for his second straight double-double performance.
Mohamed Diarra earned his third straight double-double for the Broncbusters, scoring 28 points and grabbing a game high 15 rebounds with Heru Bligen adding 22 points and Micah Octave contributing 13 points as the Broncbusters played most of the game without is leading scorer Tone Hunter who exited after just two minutes of action.
Barton continued to shoot well, dropping 47.6% from the field while holding Garden City to just 35.9% but turnovers continue to plaque Barton, committing 26 compared to the Broncbusters' 12 resulting in the home team having a thirty point advantage. The Cougars, one of the league's best rebounding teams, lost the battle on the boards by just two but surrendered 18 offensive rebounds leading to another fourteen point edge for the Broncbusters. From the stripe Barton was a solid 80% (20-25) but shot twenty-four less attempts with Garden City connecting on 31-of-49 (63.3%).
RECAP
Barton jumped out to an early 8-0 lead getting three pointers from Downing and Saar with a Kipruto inside bucket. Garden City fired back with the next seven but Barton answered with a 9-2 stretch, six coming from Kipruto including two dunks, and another Saar trey for a 17-9 lead to the first media timeout at 12:47.
The margin held at 8 for the next few minutes until Garden City went on a 12-2 stretch in four minutes in claiming its first lead at 25-23 as Barton turnovers began to mount.
Barton held off the charge to regain the lead on four straight on a pair of Trey Bates III free throws and Modibo Sanago's inside bucket, stretching the gap to three points twice on Downing jumpers, the last coming at 31-28 with 4:15 remaining. An 11-0 Garden City response opened up the Broncbusters' largest first half lead of eight before Thompson led a Barton 6-2 close out of the half to trail 41-37 at the break.
Thompson and Bates early second half buckets drew Barton to within two a pair of times, with the Cougars still in the ballgame trailing by just five with 15:11 left. Garden City then put the next five on the board, interrupted briefly by a Downing layup, before adding thirteen straight for a 71-50 margin just under ten minutes remaining.
Keith Robinson's trey sparked a Barton 7-0 run to climb back in it, getting defensive stops while sinking free throws to trail by just thirteen with 5:31 left. Following a Garden City field goal, another six point spurt took the margin to nine with 3:48 remaining but three consecutive turnovers in the next minute allowed Garden City to push the gap back out to double-digits. The Cougars made pushes down the stretch, drawing to within eight late but couldn't fully climb out of the hole to tighten up the contest any further.