A fast paced first half turned into a foul plagued final twenty minutes Saturday evening at Fleske Fieldhouse as the Barton Community College men’s basketball team held on to knock off 19th ranked Butler Community College 118-113 in the fourth highest combined scoring output in program history.
Snapping a two-game slide, the Cougars improve to 5-4 in league and 10-5 overall while the Grizzlies drop to 5-3 and 9-5 on the season.
Barton hits the road for its next pair of contests, the first coming Wednesday in a 7:30 p.m. tip at Independence Community College before traveling to Liberal on Saturday for a 4:00 p.m. tip at Seward County Community College. The Cougars’ next home game comes Saturday, January 17, hosting Cowley College on Hall of Fame Induction Day.
After trailing 7-6 early, the Cougars played one of their best halves of the season going on a 20-6 stretch, leading to a 24-point margin with 4:52 left in the half.
Taking a 62-42 advantage to the break, the Grizzlies assumed the dominant role in chipping away to eventually tie it up at 90 with 8:29 remaining.
Butler canned ten of their thirteen three-pointers in the final twenty, one of those capping five straight putting Barton in a 103-100 hole with 3:36 left.
Barton battled back with six straight in regaining the lead only to have the Grizzlies drain another long ball knotting it up. But from there, Butler could only connect on a banked in three-pointer and 2-of-4 from the free throw line, while the Cougars drained 10-of-15 at the charity stripe in pulling away for the win.
Combining for 70 fouls, 43 in second half play, resulting in 109 free throws, Barton saw both team and individual program records fall by the wayside.
The Cougars went to the line 71 times, surpassing the previous most by eleven shots, while making 50 (70.4%) in breaking the single game record by nine made tosses. Butler was 68.4% from the stripe on 26-of-38 shooting but committed 18 more fouls leading to seven Grizzlies fouling out.
In addition to the team records, Noah Williams broke two individual records, making 25 charity tosses on 29 attempts (86%), posting a career high 33 points and adding 9 rebounds.
Sebastian Muchitsch, whose And-1 with 1:29 left helped put Barton in the lead for good, finished with a career high 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting at the line and 5 assists, grabbing 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
Aris Rodriguez‘ team high five steals helped lead to a 22-point outing with Brian Sullivan, Jr. making his Cougar debut with 14 points and 8 rebounds.
The Grizzles placed four in double figures, led by Tristan Hankins’ 6-of-9 long distance shooting towards a game high 37 points. Xavier Brown added 17 points on 3-of-6 arc busters, Josiah Kirkwood added 13 points, and Amare Jones contributed 10 points.
