|
Barton
pulls off upset; hands Cloud 1st home loss of season
The
Barton County Community College men’s basketball team did
something not other team had done all season Saturday night in Concordia
– defeat Cloud County in the cozy environment of Arley Bryant
Gymnasium. Barton had to survive a miscalculation of a couple of
inches and missed 90-footer by a couple of inches in overtime to
hand the Thunderbirds the loss, 71-70. The loss dealt a blow to
Cloud’s West title hopes as well as give it its only home
loss of the year in the regular season home finale at Bryant Gym.
The win improved the Cougars to 17-11 overall this year and 5-9
in West play. Cloud fell to 10-5 in the West and 21-8 overall. Barton
has two more home contests left in its season, hosting Dodge City
and Seward County in the final week.
Highlights
The Cougars pulled off what is probably the upset of the season
in the West with only 9 players in uniform. That has been the case
the past 2 games as AJ Martin is gone for the year with a wrist
injury and Dominique White was dismissed from the team. The Cougars
fell behind by 7 midway through the 1st half and never lead the
entire opening 20 minutes of action. Barton trimmed the lead to
1 momentarily but trailed 30-25 at halftime.
Cloud
continued to hold the lead until a barrage of 3-pointers by the
Cougars – namely Reggie Love – the only sophomore left
for the Cougars. The stretch started with a Shaun James layup to
cut a 40-34 Cloud lead to 4 points. Love then made it 40-39 with
his 1st trey of the run. Love followed up pull-up 3’s the
next 2 possessions to give the Cougars a 45-42 lead. Joel Stucky
then joined the fun with the Cougars 4th trey in 4 trips down the
floor when he knocked a 3-pointer down from the left corner, right
in front of the Barton bench, for 6-point lead. A James free throw
capped a 15-3 run the Cougars to give Barton a 49-42 advantage with
11:13 left. The Cougars held that lead until 3:48 left in the game
when Cloud tied it at 55-all. The Thunderbirds briefly took a 1-point
lead late in the game but a Thiago Cordeiro free throw with 59 seconds
to play tied the game at 58-all. Neither team scored in its final
possession and the game went to overtime.
Barton
immediately took the lead in overtime, but Cloud answered just about
every Barton basket a the 1st 3 minutes saw 4 ties. The Cougars
finally pushed the lead to 3 points a long rebound by Love off a
missed 3 by Cloud. Love found a streaking Ivan Evans for a dunk
and a 67-64 lead with 1:33 to play. Barton had several chances to
put the game away over 1:30, but hit just 4-of-10 free throws to
leave the door open for Cloud. It looked like James Williams had
taken advantage of that opening with 1 second to play. Following
a pair of free throws by Stucky to give Barton a 71-68 lead with
5 seconds to play, Williams drove down, pulled up and hit what the
crowd thought had sent the game to a 2nd overtime when they erupted
after what appeared to be a 3-pointer. But the official nearest
the play immediately began signaling 2-pointer, saying Williams’s
foot was on the line. A very quick foul by Cloud but Stucky on the
line with 0.7 seconds to play. Stucky missed the 1st free throw
then intentionally missed the 2nd free throw, forcing the T-Birds
to hit a shot the length of the court to win the game. Cloud did
just about that as BJ Nimocks grabbed the rebound, turned and threw
the ball toward the basket 90 feet away. The ball hit the backboard
then front rim before bounding in the air, giving Barton the upset
win.
Evans
led Barton with 18 points, followed by Love with 15 and Cordeiro
with 13. Cordeiro just missed his 2nd triple-double of the season
as he added 11 rebounds and 9 rebounds before fouling with 24 seconds
left in overtime. Cordeiro now has 128 blocks this year, 2nd all-time
for a single season at Barton. James had 10 rebounds in the win.
Heath Baird led 3 T-Birds in double figures with 19.
Barton
will be at home Wednesday against Dodge City then host Seward County
in the season finale Saturday at the Barton County Gym.
Stats
Full stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Sat., Feb. 25 – at Cloud County, 8 pm (Jayhawk West play at
Bryant Gym in Concordia)
-30-
Check
out Barton County Basketball Online at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
|