Saturday's first round action of the Region VI Tournament was shaping up for a comeback of the century for the Barton Community College men's basketball team. Instead, a shocked Barton Gym was left with seeing the season end on the short end of an 84-82 loss to Pratt Community College.
The Beavers were red hot through the game's first fifteen minutes, building a whopping 26 point lead with Barton chipping away to grab its own lead of four with six minutes left in the contest. The teams were gridlocked just four times in the game, the last coming at 82-all with the last of just two lead changes occurring with 3.7 seconds left as the Beavers broke a trap in the corner to convert an open look game winner under the basket.
The loss concludes the 7th seeded Cougars' season at 17-14 while 10th seeded Pratt advances to 2nd seed Hutchinson on Tuesday for second round action.
Evans Kipruto led five Cougars in double digit scoring with 18 points and 10 rebounds in posting his 5th double-double of the season. Coming off the bench Myles Thompson grabbed six boards on the way to a career high 16 points and Josh Jordan provided a 12 point and 7 rebound effort. Hannes Saar added 15 points and a game high 7 assists with Cougar Downing adding 13 points, dished out 6 assists and grabbed 5 rebounds.
Barton shot well for the game, finishing at 49.2% including 46.7% from beyond the arc and 15-of-18 from the free throw line for 83.3%. The Cougars also controlled the boards for the 26th time of its thirty-one game schedule, outrebounding the Beavers 42-34 with a plus fourteen point edge in the paint.
The early difference maker was turnovers as Barton turned the ball over eleven times in the first nine minutes before the Beavers committed their first with 10:55 left in the opening frame, then added two more helping dig the big deficit. The Cougars shored up the ball control for the final twenty-five minutes, committing just one additional in the remaining five minutes of the first half and just three miscues in second half action for 17 total but the result was an eleven point deficit in the category as Pratt turned the ball over just ten times all game.
Entering the contest as one of the Jayhawk's worst shooting teams from beyond the arc, Pratt missed their first three long range shots but canned seven of their next eight in finishing the half at 8-of-14 (57.1%) to build their big lead. Canning just two of their eight three-point attempts in the final twenty minutes, Pratt finished up at 45.5% (10-22), fifteen percentage points better than their season average.
The Beavers scored fifteen of their thirty-seven second half points from the free throw line, sinking 18-of-28 (64.3%) for the game.
Cam Morris tied for game high honors with 18 points but was the big glass cleaner of the night with 15 rebounds to post the double-double. Harrison Eghan's 3-of-5 beyond the arc led to a 16 point night with Nasan Ayala adding 15 points and Julian Eziukwu contributing 11 points off the bench.
RECAP
Early shooting woes and turnovers plagued the Cougars from the start but despite, was within three with 14:02 left until a three minute scoring drought pushed the deficit into double digits.
Pratt's 11-0 run in that stretch put the Cougars on their heels as Trey Bates III's jumper only temporarily halting the drought with 10:15 left. Barton went cold for another three minutes with the Beavers taking full advantage converting on the offensive end with a 15-0 run consisting of a trio of three-pointers including a banked in trey from the top of the key.
Following Downing and Kipruto buckets halting the big stretch, Pratt canned their next pair of treys in building its largest lead with 4:57 left.
The Cougars controlled the rest of the half by outscoring the visitors 20-1 including an 11-0 run to close out first half action. Jordan helped provide the spark on a trey within his five points, Modibo Sanogo added a pair of dunks, and Thompson converted an And-1 as Saar's late layup capped the run sending Barton to the locker room trailing by just a 47-40 score.
Pratt held off Barton cutting the deficit inside five points for the first six minutes of second half play until Kipruto's block leading to Bates' dish to a high flying Saar for the dunk and three-point play reignited the gym. The Cougars added another Thompson inside bucket before Saar's three-point splash in front of the bench closed the gap to one at 57-56 with 12:27 left.
Again Pratt held off the charge, later stringing four straight free throws in opening back up a seven point margin at the mid-point.
Still trailing by five with 8:11 left, Downing's consecutive triples gave the Cougars their first lead of the game with 7:10 left and following a missed Pratt trey, another Thompson old fashioned three-point play after grabbing an offensive rebound gave Barton a 72-68 lead with 6:40 remaining.
Pratt scored their next two from the stripe, Thompson's jumper pushing the margin back to four, but the final Beaver three-pointer of the night cut the gap back to one.
Barton went cold on their next three possessions while Pratt made its way to the free throw line in the next two minutes to tack on five points for a 78-74 edge. Sanogo and Thompson buckets tied it up with Thompson adding another to answer Pratt's jumper tying it again at 80.
The next minute was missed opportunities for each team, Pratt leaving the door open going 2-of-4 from the stripe while Barton came up empty on their possession including defensively giving up a Beaver offensive rebound resulting in a made free throw.
Tied at 82 following Saar's pair of free throws, Barton had a golden opportunity following Pratt's missed pair of charity tosses with 38 second left.
The Cougars worked the shot clock down but the Pratt defense came up big resulting in a Kipruto contested shot sliding off the rim to grab the defensive board.
Following a pair of timeouts, the Beavers inbounded to the corner with seven seconds remaining and as the Cougars defense collapsed, found Eziukwu under the basket for the game winner.
Barton passed the ball up the court to eventually find Kipruto but the 12-foot jumper finding nothing but net was just shy of beating the buzzer to force overtime.