Barton wins battle at Pratt to move to 7-1 in West
The Barton Community College men's basketball team has reached the halfway point of the Jayhawk West season sitting alone atop the conference race by a full 2 games. The Cougars finished their 1st trip through the West with an 83-71 win at Pratt Saturday night at the Lesh Sports Arena to move to 7-1 in the West and 20-2 overall. Barton won despite a season-high 28 turnovers and trailed much of the opening half before holding off a feisty Pratt team for the win. Pratt fell to 3-5 in the West and 13-9 overall. Barton will be back at home for games Monday and Wednesday against perennial West powers Cloud and Seward. Both games will tip at 8 pm.
Highlights
Barton – once again – fell behind early in the contest trailing 7-2 in the opening 2 minutes of the game. After a brief 9-7 lead for Barton, the Cougars found themselves down by nearly double digits at the midway point of the opening half. The Beavers twice held 9-point leads, the latest at 25-16 with 9 minutes left in the opening half. The Cougars clawed away at that lead until tying the contest at 31-all with 3 minutes left on a Corey Bingham jumper. Barton forged a 37-35 halftime lead when Taaj Ridley nailed a trey with 1 minute left in the half.
After the teams traded the lead early in the 2nd half, Barton pulled ahead and pushed the lead to as high as 64-52 with 8:44 to play when a Bingham 3-pointer capped a 9-0 Barton run that saw Chip Steven nail 2 treys as well. Pratt was able to get the lead down to 5 on a few occasions but never closed closer than that.
Barton countered its 28 turnovers with a splendid 60 percent shooting effort from the floor. The Cougars hit 26-of-43 shots. Josh Martin led a group of Barton players in double figures with a career-high 23. Martin nearly single-handedly kept Barton in the game during the 1st half with 17 points in the opening 20 minutes. Nyika Williams upped his season field goal percentage to 69 percent with a 6-of-7 effort that resulted in 17 points. Bingham and Steven each added 14. Matt Simmons collected 11 rebounds – 10 on the defensive end – to pace Barton. Michael Tyler scored 17 to lead Pratt followed by Denodo Eiland with 15. Pratt scored 34 points off those 28 Barton turnovers and outscored the Barton bench 25-20. It is just the 2nd time during West play the Barton bench was outscored.
The Cougars will return home for a pair of home games in 3 days when Barton host Cloud Monday and Seward Wednesday to start the 2nd time through the West. Barton played 5 of its 1st 8 games on the road in the West. Cloud is coming off a 71-70 overtime win over Hutch and will bring a 4-4 West mark into the contest. The game will tip at 8 pm at the Barton Gym.
Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Feb 2 – v Cloud 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