Conference crown slipping away as No. 19 Cougars lose to Seward
Trying to keep pace for the Jayhawk Conference West crown, Saturday’s game at the Barton gym separated the Barton Community College and Seward County Community College men’s basketball teams as both came in tied for second place. For the fifth straight year the Saints came to the Cougars house and left with a victory in winning 71-60 and kept alive Seward’s outside chances of competing for the title. With hopes of the crown fading with the loss but chances for a top two seed still in its sights, No. 19 Barton drops 6-3 in the West and 19-4 overall while nationally receiving votes Seward moves into sole possession of second place at 7-2 and 16-7 overall. The Cougars travel to take on Dodge City Community College on Wednesday for an 8:00 p.m. tip at the United Wireless Arena. Barton defeated Dodge City 84-52 at the Barton Gym earlier in the conference season.
With Seward leading 15-14 with a little over eleven minutes remaining in the half, the Saints outscored the Cougars 18-6 the rest of the way to lead 33-22 into the break.
After the Saints grew their lead to fourteen early in the second half, Barton started its comeback behind the big three of Andell Cumberbatch, Algie Key, and Turon Parker. The three sophomore guards combined for twelve points during the Cougars 16-5 run to draw within three with 12:37 to play.
Unfortunately for the Cougars, it would be the closet Barton would get as the Saints would score ten of the next eleven points in the next three plus minutes to build the lead back to twelve at 53-41.
A Barton run of 7-0 to cut it to five at the 4:37 mark and a 7-3 run to cut it to four with two minutes to play had one thinking the Cougars could pull this one out. But missed free throws, layups, and even missed dunks were just subtle signs this just wasn't the Cougars' night.
Shooting a dismal 25% from the arc, Barton was also outmuscled inside as Seward out rebounded the Cougars by seven and outscored them by eight points in the paint.
Getting his sixth double-double in nine conference games, Cumberbatch led the Cougars scoring seventeen points and grabbing a game high ten rebounds. Key and Parker scored thirteen and ten respectively but the duo combined for a 7-out-of-27 performance from the field as the Cougars were only 33.9% from the field. Key's thirteen points brought his career mark to 1040 points and jumped him over Robert Whaley's 1029 points ('01-03) and Carlton Baker's 1034 points ('99-01) for eighth place all-time on the Barton career scoring chart. Key will next chase down Eric Bush's 1103 total set from the '99-01 seasons for seventh place.
Jabari Peters led four Saints in double-figures with twenty, just missing a double-double as he pulled down a team high nine rebounds. Kaheem Ransom added nineteen with Edson Avila and Malcolm Hill-Bey scoring sixteen and ten points respectively.