Barton makes it 4 straight; 'Pack the House' Saturday against Hutch
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team made it 4 straight wins Wednesday night with a 90-68 victory over Butler at the Barton Gym in Jayhawk West play. The Cougars used a 17-2 run in the 2nd half to put the game away after Butler spent much of the contest on the heels of the Cougars. Barton collected its 20th win of the year and is now 20-7 overall and 8-6 in the West. Butler falls to 9-18 overall and 4-10 in the West. The Cougars will be back home Saturday in the final regular season home game when Hutchinson comes to the Barton Gym in 'Pack the House' night. Barton can clinch a home playoff spot with a win over the Blue Dragons. Tip will be at 8 pm.

Highlights
Barton played the contest without leading scorer Chris Jackson, who sprained his ankle in the final minutes at Garden City Saturday. Despite his absence, the Cougars offense was in high gear from the onset. Unfortunately for the Cougars' defense, so was the Grizzlies offense. The teams battled through 9 ties and 9 lead changes most of the opening half with Barton breaking the final tie and taking the final lead change on a Chip Steven layup 38-36 with 2:24 left in the 1st half. The Cougars eventually got the lead to 6 and went to halftime up 44-39.

The Cougars came out an appeared to take control early in the 2nd half, jumping to a 49-39 lead but Butler had one more run in them. The Grizzlies trimmed the margin to 51-50 with 14:34 left following an 11-2 run and were still down just 54-53 following an exchange of 3-pointers by the two clubs. Barton upped that 3-point barrage to 3 straight trips when Steven knocked down a trey for a 57-53 lead and begin a 17-2 run that put the game away. Scott Schneider scored 8 in the run, hitting a pair of 3-pointers as Barton extended the lead to 71-55 with 9:08 to play. The lead reached 20 points on another Steven 3-pointer for an 82-62 lead with 5:20 to play.

Steven led 6 Cougars in double figures with 17 points, hitting 5-of-8 3-pointers. Schneider was close behind with 16 on 4-of-5 treys. Sandy Perry scored a career-high 14 in the win, going 7-of-11 from the field and Antowine Lamb added a career-high 12 off the bench. Also in double figures was Qa'rraan Calhoun with 11 and Javon Parris with 10. Parris dished out a career-high 10 assists as well. Calhoun flirted with a triple double, collecting 8 rebounds and dishing out a career-high 7 assists in just 26 minutes of action. Dominique Ngniman led Butler with 16 followed by Maurice Colter with 15.

The Cougars hit 20-of-30 shots from the floor in a 49-point 2nd half and finished 40-of-68 for the game – 59 percent. Amazingly, Barton did not shoot a single free throw the entire basketball game. Butler actually committed one more foul than Barton, 12-11, but the Grizzlies totaled just 6 fouls each half and never fouled during a shot. Butler was 8-of14 at the free throw line as Barton committed 10 of its 11 fouls in the 2nd half.

Now all focus turns to Saturday and 'Pack the House' against Hutchinson. A win would secure the Cougars a home playoff game to start Region VI play in just more than a week. Hutch comes into the game alone in 1st in the West at 11-2. The Blue Dragons were in a 3-way tie with Cloud and Seward until Barton knocked them from the top spot when those two teams paid a visit to the Barton Gym recently. Barton has won 6 of its last 7 games, having lost just once since the Blue Dragons handed them a 93-77 loss at the Sports Arena in Hutchinson.

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

Next 
Sat Feb 23 – v Hutchinson, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton Gym in Great Bend)

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