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Barton
captures road in at Pratt, 87-69
The
Barton County Community College men’s basketball team earned
a big road win Saturday night, rolling to an 87-69 win at the Beaver
Dome in Pratt. The win at West’s 2nd place team’s home
floor was the 1st time since the season-opening weekend the Cougars
have put together back-to-back wins. Barton moved to within a game
of 2nd place in the West with the win, now 5-4 in West play. Barton
is 10-13 overall. Pratt fell to 6-3 and into a tie with Seward County
in 2nd place in West play with the loss and 13-10 overall. Barton
will host West leading Garden City (7-1, 15-7) Wednesday at the
Barton County Gym.
Highlights
The Cougars got off to a slow in the contest, trailing by 8 points
on a couple of occasions. Pratt jumped to a 12-4 lead and still
held that 8-point advantage with at 17-9 with 11:27 to play in the
contest. Barton slowly chipped away at the lead until the Cougars
tied that game at 22-all with 4:39 left in the half.
During
that final 4:30 of the 1st half, the Barton offense found high gear
scoring 18 points in just more than four minutes of play. Barton
took the lead for good when Antanas Kavaliauskas scored on a layup
with 2:59 left in the half on an assist from Scott Elliott. A pair
of Caleb Tegtmeier 3-pointers and one by Aubrey Bruner to end the
half pushed Barton’s lead to 40-31 by the intermission.
The
Cougars didn’t let off the gas in the 2nd half, leading by
double digits nearly the entire 20 minutes of action. Pratt did
cut the lead to 43-37 and 47-41 early the half, but that would be
as close as the Beavers would get. Barton pushed the lead 17 when
Dylan Channel joined in one of the Cougars better 3-point shooting
night’s of the season with his 2nd trey of the game at the
8:09 mark for a 66-49 lead. The Beavers got the lead to single digits
once more at 68-59 with 5:52 to play but the Cougars answered with
an 8-1 run to put the game away.
Several
career efforts were put forth by the Cougars in the win. Bruner
tossed in a career-high 25 points to lead the Cougars in scoring
and also equaled his career-high with 7 rebounds. Kavaliauskas didn’t
put up career numbers but did turn in his 12th double-double of
the season with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Tegtmeier turned in career
double-double No. 1 with 16 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.
Both were career-high marks for the Cougar freshman. The rebound
total of 14 doubled his previous high of 7. It was the 4th time
during the West season that Tegtmeier has scored in double figures
and he is now averaging 8 points a contest in West play. Channel
found double figures for the first time since a 22-point output
back in late November, scoring 12 points.
Pratt
was led by Marcus Wimberly with 19 points and Jared Young with 16.
Pratt hit just 4-of-20 3-pointers in the contest while Barton hit
10-of-25. The 10 treys for the Cougars was just the 3rd time they’ve
hit double digits in that category. Barton made 11 treys in wins
over Western Wyoming and Westchester. The 87 points was the 2nd
highest of the season (88 v Westchester) and the first time this
season Barton put together back-to-back 80-point performances. It
was also the 6th time in 8 games Barton has shot higher than 50
percent (30-of-59) from the floor. The Cougars are 5-1 in those
contests.
Stats
Full box scores and stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Wed., Feb. 9 – v Garden City, 7:30 pm (Jayhawk West contest
at the Barton County Gym)
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Check
out Barton County Basketball Online at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
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