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Barton hoops closes out with impressive win over Garden City
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There was still plenty to play for when the Barton men’s basketball team tipped off for the final time in the regular season Saturday night at the Barton Gym.
The Cougars knew with a win, they would be the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Region VI post season tournament. A loss would drop them all the way to the 4th seed.
But as much as anything, the Cougars needed some momentum to take into the playoffs after back-to-back losses for the first time this year.
Mission accomplished.
The Cougars rolled to a 101-80 win over Garden City at the Barton Gym on Sophomore Night to secure second place in the Jayhawk West.
Barton closes out the regular season at 14-7 in the West and 22-8 overall. That means Cloud County will make its way to the Barton Gym Wednesday night to start the Region VI playoffs.
“It was nice to get one an easy win for once,” Coach Craig Fletchall said. “We played some pretty good defense that second half. That allowed us to build a lead and put it on cruise.
“I am proud of this team to finish second in the West. They deserve it. The sophomore really played well for us.”
The game started a breakneck pace as the two teams traded the lead.
Barton finally got a little separation midway through the first half. The Cougars went on a 9-0 run to take a 29-21. They would not trail again.
It started with an Anthony Enneking dunk. Desean Munson scored four straight at one point then Justin Harmon capped it with a jumper at the 8:46 mark.
The lead hit double figures when Harmon scored off a nice feed from Enneking to make it 38-27 with 5:30 left.
The Cougars continued to pour it on. A 3-pointer by Martin Vogts and a fast-break layup from Harmon and suddenly Barton had a commanding 43-29 lead with 4:41 still to play in the half.
Back-to-back step back 3-pointers by Jahiem Holden made it a 48-31 game.
But Garden didn’t go away. The Broncbusters followed with an 13-2 run to cut the margin to 50-44. The clubs went to half with Barton up 54-46.
The Broncbusters scored the first five points of the second half to make it 54-51 less than two minutes in.
Barton answered that with a 9-2 run later in the half, taking a 70-58 lead with 11:40 to play.
The Cougars kept pouring it on. By the media timeout with 8:15 to play, it was an 82-66.
From there, Barton put it on cruise control for the win.
After hitting a school record 77 percent from the floor in the win at Garden City earlier this year, Barton lit it up for 63 percent this time. It was also the first time Barton topped 100 points since that win in Garden.
Holden led Barton with 21 points and six assists. Munson added 16 points and nine rebounds. A trio of sophomroe followed in double figures with Vogts at 15, Diovonte Caldwell with 13 and Enneking with 11. Harmon finished with 10.
Traylynn Spencer led Garden with 18 while the leading scorer in the Jayhawk, Tahlik Chavez scored 16.
Cloud will come to Barton for the opening round Wednesday with the winner moving onto Dodge City for the quarterfinals on Sunday. Cloud is 10-20 on the season.
“Cloud is better than their record,” Coach Fletchall said. “They beat Iowa Western last night and those first round games can be ugly.”
The winner of the Barton-Cloud game will take on the winner of the Dodge-Coffeyville game in the quarterfinals.

Barton 101, Garden 80
Garden 46 34 – 80
Barton 54 47 – 101
Garden (3-18, 9-21) 80
Bryant 4-6 2-2 12, Osborne 4-4 0-0 9, Spencer 6-13 6-9 18, Chavez 6-18 1-1 16, Woods 2-7 0-0 4, Samuels 1-4 1-4 3, Emory 0-2 0-0 0, Lamb 1-2 1-2 4, Frazier 5-8 0-0 14. Totals – 29-64 11-18 80.
Barton (14-7, 22-8) 101
Harmon 3-4 4-4 10, Caldwell 5-9 1-2 13, Vogts 4-8 6-7 15, Enneking 5-6 1-2 11, Gildyard 4-8 0-0 8, Munson 6-6 4-4 16, Holden 8-11 1-2 21, Bowles 0-1 0-0 0, Widiger 0-0 0-0 0, Koehler 3-6 0-0 7, Carr 0-1 0-0 0. Totals – 38-60 17-21 101.
3-pointers – Garden 11-22 (Frazier 4-6, Chavez 3-7, Bryant 2-4, Osborne 1-1, Lamb 1-2, Woods 0-1, Emory 0-1), Barton 8-14 (Holden 4-4, Caldwell 2-3, Koehler 1-2, Vogts 1-3, Enneking 0-1, Carr 0-1).
Rebounds – Garden 27 (Spencer 6), Barton 35 (Munson 9). Assists – Garden 13 (Chavez 6), Barton 14 (Holden 6). Steals – Garden 7 (3 with 2), Barton 7 (Enneking 3). Blocks – Garden 0, Barton 4 (Munson 3).
Turnovers – Garden 13, Barton 14. Fouled Out – None. Technicals – None.

Region VI Playoffs
First Round, Wednesday, Feb. 25
W1 Colby (26-4) receives a bye
W5 Seward (17-13) at E4 Indy (22-8)
W7 Garden (9-21) at E2 Butler (22-7)
E6 Neosho (11-18) at W3 Pratt (19-11)
E1 Cowley (25-5) receives a bye
E5 Allen (15-14) at W4 Hutch (22-8)
E7 Cloud (10-20) at W2 Barton (22-8)
W6 Dodge (11-19) at E3 Coffeyville (22-8)