OTTAWA — You knew it was going to be a strange night for the Barton Community College men’s basketball team on Thursday night.
The reason? The scheduled game officials never did show, so Ottawa University was left scrambling to find three local referees, which delayed the scheduled 7:30 start of the Barton-Ottawa University junior varsity game.
Barton spent the entire first half adapting to the officials’ style in building a 41-34 halftime lead, and then the Cougars turned it up a notch, reeling off a 30-5 run to start the second half in a 106-53 blowout, the second time in as many games they eclipsed the century mark in points.
“We had three local Ottawa referees calling the game,” Barton head coach Craig Fletchall said. “Our guys had trouble adapting to their calls on touch-fouls and whatnot. They adapted in the second half, got into the passing lanes, made some steals and were able to pull away.”
Barton, which improved to 4-0 on the young season, had six players in double figures, led by freshman guard Kevin Kuteyi, who scored 16 points in his season debut.
“It was Kevin’s first game with us,” said Fletchall of Kuteyi, a native of Lanham, Md., the same hometown as former Barton standout Colin Beatty. “He really played well.”
Sophomore guards Turon Parker and Andell Cumberbatch each scored 15 points, and Al Key, a sophomore guard, and freshman forward Raheem Johnson scored 12 apiece. Freshman guard Trey Unrau added 10 points.
Key, a third-team NJCAA All-America selection last season, was coming of a career-high 34 points during Tuesday night’s 103-64 manhandling of the Friends University JV at Kirkman Activity Center.
Against the Ottawa JV, Key was content on distributing instead of scoring.
“He was very unselfish,” Fletchall said of the 6-foot-4 native of Decatur, Ga. “They knew who he was and he was getting a lot of attention.
“He made a concerted effort to get his teammates involved. He had a lot of assists.”
Barton travels to Kansas City, Kan., to take Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Eastern Divison foe Kansas City Kansas in non-conference action on Tuesday night, starting at 7.

— Mack McClure