EL DORADO — The No. 9 ranked Butler Grizzlies handed the No. 6 ranked Barton Cougars its second consecutive setback with a hard-fought 82-72 Jayhawk Conference basketball showdown Wednesday.
Barton (8-2, 3-2 Jayhawk) had a 3-game winning streak over the Grizzlies (9-1, 4-0 Jayhawk) snapped. Barton plays Pratt at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Brent Moss led the Cougars with 18 points before fouling out for the remaining 3:50 of the foul infested contest with Aris Rodriguez connecting on 11-of-13 from the stripe for a career with 17 points.
Saddled to just nine first half minutes due to foul problems, Keandre Kindell scored nine of his 13 points in second half play.
Returning to the court for second half action, Kindell canned a trey immediately tying it up with a perfect trip to the line following a Butler bucket knotting things up again at 38.
Butler took the next six points and following a Moss bucket, drained another triple taking their then-largest lead of seven.
Trailing by five two minutes later, Moss put the Cougars on his back with seven straight including an offensive rebound putback for an And-1 putting Barton back on top 52-50 at the 12:29 mark.
It would be the Cougars' last lead of the contest as Butler went into the bonus at the ten minute mark, capitalizing on free throws within a 9-0 stretch.
Eltramon Smith, Jr.'s triple helped Barton hang around a 4-6 point range deficit, later cutting the gap to just two at 71-69 on James Parlow, Jr.'s jumper with 3:30 left.
A pivotal stretch of calls went against the Cougars to help deter the comeback, the first coming on Kindell being whistled for a charging call wiping away a potential scoring threat then being followed by a Barton blocking foul on an apparent push off.
The stretch resulted in five points for the Grizzlies including a dagger triple coming late in the shot clock for a 76-69 Butler lead with two minutes remaining.
A 1-of-2 trip to the line and a field goal by Rodriguez would be all the Cougars could put on the scoreboard as Barton could not get no producing point stops with Butler closing out the evening's last minute with the final four points.
The Cougars got off to a good start behind a 6-0 run for their largest lead of five coming at 9-4 just over four minutes into the contest.
Following a 7-point swing to the Grizzlies, Barton fired back with the next six but after a Butler three-pointer the first half momentum swung back to the home team.
With a double technical being issued to Butler's Russell Branch and Kindell, the Cougars' leading scorer was sent to the bench with his third foul for the remaining three minutes.
Barton was able to maintain their lead following a pair of Modibo Sanogo free throws but for the next four minutes the Cougars were held scoreless on eight straight by the Grizzlies.
A pair of four point stretches by Barton sliced the deficit with Butler responding with a five pack of points including their 4th three-pointer of the half in riding to an eventual 36-33 edge at the break.
BARTON (8-2, 3-2) (FG 3 FT TP) Moss 6-12 6-8 18; Rodriguez 3-12 (0-4) 11-13 17; Kindell 4-7 (1-3 4-4 13; Muchitsch 1-3 (1-1 0-0 3; Sanogo 3-8 3-5 9; Williams 3-8 (0-3) 1-1 7; Brooks 0-4 (0-3) 0-2 0; Parlow 1-3 0-0 2; N'Gombo 0-2 0-0 0, Smith 1-2 (1-2) 0-0 3; Inanov 0-2 (0-1) 0-0 0; Totals 22-63 (3-17) 25-33 72
BUTLER (9-1, 3-0) (FG 3 FT TP) Branch 3-11 (3-7) 6-10 15; Leavell 4-9 (4-9) 1-1 13; Reed 4-6 (2-3) 1-2 11; Kerr 45-5 0-0 10; McCormick 3-7 (1-4) 3-4 9; Fisher 1-6 (0-4) 3-4 5; Opurum 2-4 4-6 8; Kirkwood 0-7 (0-3) 2-2 2; Adeoye 1-1 0-0 2; Pierre-Jerome 1-4 5-8 7; Totals 24-60 (10-30) 24-38 82
Barton 33 39 — 72
Butler 36 46 — 82
Rebounds—Barton 43 (Moss 8); Butler 41 (Kerr 7, Adeoye 7). Assists—Barton 9 (Moss 4); Butler 14 (Branch 3, McCormick 3). Steals—Barton 7 (Kindell 3); Butler 3 (Leavell 2)
