Winning on the Jayhawk road is always tough and therefore much sweeter as the Barton Community College men's basketball team rallied from a thirteen point second half deficit Wednesday night behind a fifty-four point outburst to win 88-79 at Garden City Community College.
The victory was the first road win of the season for the Cougars, improving to 3-4 in conference play and 4-4 overall while dropping Garden City to 2-4 in league and 3-4 overall.
The Cougars will sit idle for a week before traveling to Northwest Kansas Technical College next Wednesday for an 8:30 p.m. (CT) tip at the Max Jones Fieldhouse in Goodland. Due to Covid-19 health and safety concerns with its opponents, Barton's scheduled Saturday game hosting Colby Community College and Monday's matinee versus Neosho County Community College have been postponed.
Barton not only had a tale of two halves shooting from the field, but drained a season high 27 free throws in eclipsing 84% from the stripe for the fourth time of the year. The Cougars also limited their second half turnovers aiding in the comeback to just three in the final twenty minutes after giving the ball away eleven times in the first half. Garden City shot nearly the opposite of Barton in the game with a sizzling 57.7% in the first half but just 33.3% in the second and making 16-of-25 (64.0%) from the free throw line.
Six Cougars reached double-digits on the night led by Jaheim Holden's 16 points and four steals off the bench and Cameron Brooks-Harris' career high performance of 8 rebounds and 15 points including knocking down 3-of-6 behind the arc. Justin Harmon added 13 points with Evans Kipruto giving the Cougars a huge lift off the bench on both ends of the floor scoring 12 points. Smooth shooting Asanti Price added a thunderous dunk to his 11 points and Desean Munson's tough inside play contributed 10 points. Willie Lapoole, who scored a career high 29 points the last time the Cougars played, took just five shots on the night in scoring five points but hauled down a team second best seven rebounds helping Barton to a sixteen rebound edge.
Jaduhkiss Suto led three Broncbusters with 19 points followed by Mohamed Diarra team leading seven rebounds and 13 points and Khadim Samb's 11 points off the bench. Garden City's leading scorer Denver Jones added 9 points in twenty-two minutes of court time while being saddled with foul trouble.
Recap
Barton trailed throughout the first half, cutting the deficit to a possession multiple times only to have Garden City respond with mini spurts. Kipruto helped keep Barton in the game with eight big points off the bench to compliment two treys each from Price and Brooks-Harris.
A year removed from shooting a school record 71.1% on their last trip to Conestoga Arena, Barton struggled in the first half Wednesday night at just 31.3% and committing eleven turnovers. The ills and going five minutes without a field goal helped the Broncbusters open up a trio of nine point leads until stretching it to ten with 1:41 left.
More of the same transpired through the first four minutes of second frame action with Garden City stretching their lead out to thirteen points with 16.47 to play before the tide turned in the favor of the Cougars.
Keyed by the block and transition layup from Harmon, Barton rattled off nine straight getting a Holden's three-pointer, a Brooks-Harris bucket, and a steal and layup from Holden cutting the deficit to 52-48.
Following a Garden City timeout and empty possession, Shawn Warrior's slash to the cup finishing with a rim bender completed the 11-0 run as a hanging on the rim technical call resulted in a pair of Broncbuster free throws.
Garden City managed to stay in front for the next five minutes until the 8:51 mark when a pair of Munson free throws tied it up for the first time. An empty Broncbuster possession later, Holden's lane floater gave the Cougars their first lead at 66-64 with 8:03 to play.
Five straight put Garden City back out front but the lead was short lived as Barton would go on a 7-0 run and held the Broncbusters without a field goal for four minutes. Charity tosses from Harmon on either side of a Lapoole dish to Kipruto on the low block, and a Holden fifteen footer to complete the stretch put Barton in front the rest of the contest.
Jones, despite the limited court time was a big part of keeping Garden City in the game, including knocking down his lone triple of the game to end the drought slicing Barton's lead to 73-72 with 3:04 left.
The Cougars then strung six straight with Harmon getting an inside hoop, then along with Holden, added a pair of free throws each for the Cougars' then largest lead.
Showtime lane clearing dunks from Asanti Price and Harmon, along with a perfect six charity tosses down the stretch ballooned the margin to eleven in the final minute of play.