Barton drops 4th straight with loss at Butler
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team saw its losing streak reach 4 games Saturday night as the Cougars lost to Butler County by a 77-69 count at the Power Plant in El Dorado. The loss drops the Cougars to 8-6 in the Jayhawk West and into a tie for 5th place with Butler County, who has swept the Cougars this season. Barton is now 20-8 overall. Butler improves to 8-6 as well in the West and 18-10 overall.

Highlights
Barton led the game from the outset, leading by as many as 8 points in the opening half on several occasions before the Grizzlies rallied to take their first lead of the game at 34-32 with just less than 3 minutes to play in the half. Barton rallied to even the score at 37-all at the intermission.

In the 2nd half, the Cougars again jumped out to an early lead on the Grizzlies with 8-0 run for a 45-37 score. Barton would again hold that lead until Butler tied the game at 53-all with 11:42 to play. The Grizzlies retook the lead at 56-55 before the two clubs traded the lead for several minutes. Butler took the lead for good on a pair of free throws with 4:34 to play for a 61-60 lead that started a 6-0 run for Butler that saw their lead grow to 65-60 with 3:13 to play. Barton could get no closer than 3 the rest of the way before free throws in the final minute allowed the Grizzlies to pull out to the 8-point win.

The Cougars were led by JP Batista with 23 points and 14 rebounds but he struggled from the field to do as the 61 percent shooting hit just 9-of-17 shots. Justin Rose added 17 and Aubrey Bruner 13 before a key injury knock him out of the game with 10 minutes still to play. Bruner was poked in the eye by incidental contact and never returned with Barton trailing by 1 point. The Grizzlies were led by Chris Lee with 21 points followed by Kevin Menifee with 15 and Todd Henry with 14. The Cougars turned the ball over 21 times to just 8 for Butler.

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

Next
Feb. 25 – at Cloud, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Cloud County Gym)

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