Cougars lose 4 point lead in final minute; fall at Pratt in final second
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team hooked up in a good ol' fashion barnburner Saturday at Pratt in Jayhawk West play. The results wasn't what the Cougars had hoped for, falling to Pratt in the final second of the game, 78-77, to drop a heartbreaking contest to the Beavers. Barton, trailing late in the game, rallied to grab a 4-point lead in the final minute only to see it disappear with a layup by the Beavers with 1 second to play. The loss drops the No. 7 ranked Cougars to 7-2 in the West and 21-2 overall. Pratt improved to 5-4 in the West and 18-5 overall, putting themselves back in the conference race just 2 games out of the lead. Barton is tied with Garden a top the West standings with Dodge 3rd at 6-3.

Highlights
The Cougars looked as if they were about to cap off a big road win in the West with 35 seconds to play when Chris Jackson scored on a fast-break layup on a pass from Omar Johnson. That gave Barton a 77-73 lead and capped a 9-0 run that saw Pratt go scoreless for 3 minutes. During that stretch the Cougars forced the Beavers into 3 turnovers and Pratt missed 2 shots as the Cougar built their biggest lead of the game.

The game was tied at 73-all before a flurry of action in the game's final minute-plus. It started when Wagner Bueno forced a steal for Barton resulting in a breakaway dunk by Ivan Evans with just less than 1 minute to play to give Barton a 75-73 lead. The next trip down the floor Omar Johnson stripped Pratt point guard Robert Moores and eventually found Jackson for the layup with 35 seconds to play a 77-73 lead.

That is when the momentum turned on the Cougars. Following a time out by the Beavers, Pratt freed Bryce Simon for a 3-pointer to make it 77-76 with 21 seconds to play. That is when things began to get even crazier. After another Pratt timeout, the Cougars inbounds pass was deflected and stolen by the Beavers who called a timeout with 14 seconds left. The ensuing inbounds pass by Pratt was deflected by Jackson then run down by Jackson with 9 seconds to play to give Barton the ball back.

Pratt's Brandon Graber grabbed Evans with 5 seconds to play, sending the Barton sophomore to the free throw line for a 1-and-1. Evans missed the free throw, which was rebounded by Jairocy Simpson. Simpson fired the ball to Kevin Goffney, who found a streaking Moores for the game-winning layup with 1 second to play. By the time the clock was stopped there was just 0.3 left in the contest for Barton to try and win. An errant length of the floor inbounds pass by the Cougars ended that opportunity and gave the Beavers the win.

The Cougars put their 3 guns in double figures with Johnson leading the way with 19, Thiago Cordeiro adding 18 and Evans 16. Johnson added 11 assists for a double-double while Cordeiro did the same with 10 rebounds. The Cougars shot nearly 50 percent from the floor and hit 16-of-26 shots in the 2nd half of the contest. Barton out-rebounded the Beavers, outscored Pratt in the paint 38-24, outscored the Beavers 21-13 in points off turnovers as well as 31-10 in fast break points. But some key numbers in the loss by Barton were a 4-of-9 effort at the free throw line in the 2nd half as well as a 14-of-27 effort by Pratt on 3-point shooting.

The Cougars will try to keep a share of the lead and put a little distance between themselves and Dodge City Wednesday when the Conquistadors visit the Barton Gym in a big West showdown. Dodge is the only other team to beat Barton this season.

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

Next
Wed, Feb 7 – v Dodge, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton Gym in Great Bend)

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