Cougars win battle of ranked teams; beat Pratt 79-65 to open West play
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team won a battle of ranked teams Wednesday night at the Barton County Gym, rolling to a 79-65 win over No. 14 ranked Pratt. The 15th ranked Cougars used a 20-7 run to take the lead in the opening half and never looked back to win the its Jayhawk West opener. Barton led by double digits most of the way to improve  14-0 on the season and 1-0 in the West. Pratt lost for just the 2nd time, falling to 13-2 overall and 0-1 in the West. Barton is back on the court Saturday when they travel to the preseason favorite to win the Jayhawk West, Dodge City.

Highlights
Barton trailed the opening stages of the 1st half and found themselves down 19-15 with 10 minutes to play. The Cougars went on a 20-7 run over the next 7 minutes to take a 35-26 lead and did not trail again. Barton led by double digits most of the remainder of the way. Pratt made a run in the 2nd half, cutting a 14-point 2nd half lead to 5 at 58-53 with 10:30 still to play, but the Cougars answered back. Barton immediately put together a 9-0 run. Matt Green scored a hoop followed by an Omar Johnson layup. Blaine Clark made it 65-53 with a trey and a Thiago Cordiero tip in at the 6:39 mark made it a 67-53 Barton led. Pratt got no closer than 12 the rest of the way.

Cordiero had a huge night, collected 22 rebounds – 4th best all-time at Barton. The 6-9 sophomore added 17 points to record his 7th double-double. He was joined in double figures by 4 other Cougars. Johnson added 14 points Clark and Chris Jackson each had 12 and Ivan Evans finished with 11. The Cougars hit 11-of-29 3-pointers while Pratt connected on just 4-of-20 3-pointers in the loss.

The Cougars will be on the road for its 1st conference road test when they travel to Dodge City to take on the preseason favorite to win the West in co-defending champion Dodge City.

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

Next
Sat, Jan 6 – at Dodge, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Civic Center in Dodge)

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