Barton men squander big leads, fall by five to Southeast

The Barton Community College men's basketball team couldn't hold double digit leads Saturday in Salina, falling 82-77 to Southeast Community College.  After leading by fifteen at halftime, Barton had separate seventeen and fifteen second half leads but squandered each.  The final dagger came via a Southeast 17-0 run to tie it with 2:33 to play.  From there Barton had no answer for the Southeast comebacks and was outscored 7-2 down the stretch to take the loss.  Barton drops to 7-2 on the season while Southeast improves to 7-1.  Barton will hit the road again next weekend heading to Ottumwa, Iowa, to play a pair of games in the Indian Hills Classic.  The Cougars will take on the nation's No. 2 ranked and host Indian Hills Community College at 7:30 p.m. Friday then conclude the weekend with a 4:30 p.m. Saturday contest versus Marshalltown Community College.

Tyler Corley led the Cougars with eighteen points as only three Cougars reached the double figure plateau.  Darius Gibson posted fifteen and led the Cougars in assists with four while Deriece Parks came off the bench to add ten.  Raheem Johnson grabbed twelve rebounds to lead both teams while Corley led the Cougars with three steals.

Southeast's Josh Roberts led all scorers with twenty-three while Tyrell Corlew and Baron Smith added seventeen and ten points respectively.

Although the Cougars controlled the paint leading the rebound edge by thirteen and outscoring Southeast by eighteen, free throws and points off turnovers killed the Cougars.  Having only gone to the line four times in the first half, Southeast was sent to the line thirty-one times connecting on 74% to outscore the Cougars at the stripe in the second half by eighteen. Barton meanwhile only went to the line seventeen times in the second half converting a dismal 29%.  Southeast also held a big twenty point advantage off turnovers as the Cougars committed thirteen more than Southeast resulting in a twenty point swing.