Barton beats Garden; can clinch 1st Jayhawk West title in 6 years Saturday
The Barton Community College men’s basketball team put a 3-game cushion between itself and 3rd place Garden City Wednesday night with an 85-68 win over the Broncbusters at the Barton Gym in Great Bend. The only team within 3 games of the Cougars is Butler, whom the Cougars play Saturday in El Dorado. Barton is 10-2 in the West and Butler is 7-4. If Barton wins that contest, the Cougars will have a 3 game lead on its nearest competitor with only 3 games to go, clinching the schools 1st Jayhawk West men’s basketball title since 2003. Barton would also hold tiebreakers with any team able to catch them with a win, clinching the top seed from the West in the Region VI tournament. Barton is now 23-3 overall. Garden City fell to 6-5 and 16-9. The tip at Butler is set for 7:30 pm.
Highlights
Playing with through injuries and the flu bug the Cougars fought through it for the big win. Barton struggled through the opening half, hitting just 37 percent of its shots from the floor. Garden meanwhile hit nearly 60 percent from the field and led by as many as 9 in the half. The Cougars cut the lead to 5 by halftime at 38-33.
The Cougars chased the Broncbusters for a good portion of the 2nd half. Barton would creep to within a 1-2 points then fall back by 5-7 points. This happened 3 times before Barton finally caught Garden at the 10:58 mark when Scrap Martin tied the game with a bucket in the lane. Less than two minutes later Barton had its 1st lead in nearly 21 minutes when Cornelius Brown made a pair of free throws for a 55-54 lead with 9:28 left. The final 9 minutes was all Barton.
The Cougars outscored the Broncbusters 30-14 down in the final 9:28 for the blowout margin in a game that was anything but a blowout. The Cougars scored in 5 straight possessions after taking the lead to push that margin to 63-55. It reached double figures at 72-62 with 4 minutes left and a high of 17 with the final margin. The Cougars hit 56 percent from the field in the 2nd half and turned the ball over just 6 times – the final one an intentional one as they let the shot clock expire in the final seconds of the game.
Martin and fellow sophomore Nyika Williams both had a huge 2nd half. Martin scored 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor, including some tough baskets on the inside for the 6-1 point guard. Martin led the Cougars with 19 for the game. Williams controlled the glass in the final 20 minutes collecting 12 of his 15 rebounds as the Cougars won the 2nd half rebound total by 9 and out-boarded Garden 46-33 for the game. Williams had his 8th double-double of the season – his 5th in his last 6 games – with 16 points to go with the 15 boards.
Barton had 5 players in double figures with Corey Bingham adding 13, Chip Steven 11 and Taaj Ridley 10. Bingham led the Cougars with 7 assists. An ironic number in the game was the difference in points off turnovers. The teams committed about the same number of turnovers (Garden 18, Barton 16) but the Cougars scored 29 points off turnovers and Garden just 15.
The win will have Barton seeking its 1st Jayhawk West title since 2003 when the Cougars battle the Grizzlies Saturday. Ironically, that year the Cougars ran away with the West as they have a chance to do this year. Barton won the West by 3 games in 2003. But a loss by Barton and Butler is very much in the mix for the West title. Butler would be just 1 game back and would have split the season series with the Cougars for tiebreaking purposes.
Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Feb 14 – at Butler 7:30 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Power Plant in El Dorado)
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Check out Barton Basketball Online at www.bartonccc.edu/sports |
