Cougars snag road win at Seward
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team earned an all-important Jayhawk West road win Saturday night in Liberal, knocking off Seward County by an 80-47 score. The win kept the Cougars tied for 1st place in the conference with a 7-2 mark. The Cougars are now 19-4 overall. Barton is currently 1 of 3 teams in the West with 2 losses. Hutchinson is 7-2 and Garden City is 6-2. Seward County fell to 8-15 and 0-9 in the West.

Highlights
Barton never trailed in the contest, jumping out to a 22-8 lead midway through the opening half of basketball. Seward did keep it close the remainder of the 1st half, trailing by a 33-20 margin at the half. Much of that was due to the Cougars rebounding troubles in the 1st half. Seward held a 21-17 rebounding advantage at the half.

The 2nd half saw the Cougars quickly push the lead to 20 and Seward was never able to challenge Barton during the 2nd 20 minutes of play. All but two Cougars scored in the contest, led by JP Batista with 18 points and 8 rebounds in 27 minutes of action. Rone Smith added 14 off the bench for the Cougars, who ended up winning the rebound totals, 47-42.

Keoni Watson, the conference's leading scorer, led Seward with 16 points but they were hard earned points. Watson was just 5-of-22 from the floor and in two games against Barton, Watson is now 7-of-39 from the floor against the Cougars for a total of 24 points. He normally averages more than 20 points per contest.

Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Feb. 4 – v Pratt, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton County Gym)

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Check out Barton County Men's Basketball Online at www.bartonccc.edu/sports