Cougars' skid continues with loss at Cloud County
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team has hit that proverbial wall the last 3 games. The Cougars were riding high at 21-1 the opening 22 games, but have now lost 3 straight after a 71-66 loss to Cloud County at the Arley Bryant Gym in Concordia. Barton trailed the entire contest and were unable to make some key shots late in the 2nd half to rally for the win. The Cougars are now 21-4 overall and 7-4 in the West, tied for 3rd. Cloud improves to 17-7 and 5-5. Barton will try once again to stop the snowball Wednesday when the Cougars travel to Liberal to take on Seward County in another West contest.

Highlights
Barton's 1st 4 shots did not even touch iron as the Cougars struggled to score in the opening half of action. That allowed Cloud to build a 6-0 lead and never trail again. Barton continued to struggle for points in the 1st half, scoring just 5 in the opening 10 minutes as Cloud built a 19-5 lead on the Cougars. The Cougars finally found their offense with 23 points in the closing 10 minutes of the half to trim Cloud's lead to 31-28 at intermission.

Cloud pushed the lead back to double digits in the 8 minutes into the 1st half and kept the lead around 10 until an 8-2 run by Barton cut the lead to 61-56 with 5 minutes to play. Barton had 2 possessions to trim the lead to 3 points but was unable to convert. The T-Birds then pushed the lead back to 10 at 65-55 and held on for the win.

Chris Jackson scored 17 points to pace Barton – his 2nd highest point total as a Cougar. He was joined in double figures by Omar Johnson with 13. Ivan Evans had 11 rebounds for the Cougars and Johnson added 5 assists. Mark Herbster came off the bench to knock down 4 3-pointers and lead 4 Cloud players in double figures with 14. That helped the Cloud bench outscore Barton 30-18.

The Cougars will make a Valentine's Day trip to Liberal in another effort to end the losing streak when they take on Seward. The Saints are 13-10 on the season and 4-6 in the West.

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

Next
Sat, Feb 14 – at Seward, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Green House in Liberal)

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