EL DORADO – Trailing at halftime is nothing new for this edition of the Barton men’s basketball team.
In fact, half of the Cougars wins in the Jayhawk Conference have come when trailing after the first 20 minutes.
But Wednesday night at the Power Plant in El Dorado was the first time the No. 11 Cougars faced a double-digit halftime deficit.
Not to worry. For the seventh time in 14 wins, the Cougars completed the big comeback with an 80-72 road win over Butler to run their winning streak to seven games.
“I’m happy we are able to keep our composure even though we are behind at halftime,” Barton Coach Craig Fletchall said. “But I sure would like us to play better in that first half. I’m getting too old for all these comebacks. It’s making me lose my hair.”
The win keeps Barton all by itself at the top of the Jayhawk. Barton is 14-2 in the conference and 18-2 overall. Butler falls to 5-11 and 8-11. Oddly enough, Butler is now just 1-8 at home in Jayhawk play.
Hutchinson, ranked No. 12, is 13-3 in the Jayhawk and Coffeyville is 12-4. Everyone else in the conference has at least six losses.
Barton trailed nearly the entire opening half, but it was an 8-2 run by Butler to end the half that sent the Grizzlies to the locker room with their biggest lead of the game at 40-30.
Barton came out to start the second half and immediately got themselves back in the contest. A Kawanise ‘Squeaky’ Wilkins tip in and an Elijah Ford jumper made it 40-34. Ford scored the next trip down to make it 40-36 just more than two minutes in.
The Cougars continued to chip away at the Grizzlies advantage. A pair of Keshon Montague free throws – his first points of the game – made it 43-40 with 16:09 left.
Montague tied it at 43-all with a trey on the ensuing possession, forcing Butler to call a timeout with 15:37 to play.
The Cougars took the lead for the first time since midway through the first half on a Ford layup for a 45-43 lead with 15:10 to play.
That made it a 15-3 run to start the second half.
Barton wasn’t done. The lead grew to 53-47 after an Akeem White basket with 13:06 to play, forcing another Butler timeout and pushing Barton’s second half run to 23-7.
The lead reached 55-47 before a Butler trey ended an 8-0 Barton run.
“We really started moving the ball better side-to-side in the second half,” Coach Fletchall said. “In the first half we stood around too much and settled.”
The Cougars would not trail again.
Butler kept things close. In fact, when Anthony Bratton put back a dunk, it was 59-57 with 9:35 to play but Noah Webster answered with his only trey of the night to make it 62-57.
Barton began to get some separation from Butler with an 7-3 run after Ford made two free throws for a 69-62 with 5:56 to play.
After getting that 7-point lead, the Cougars went nearly five minutes without a bucket as Butler cut the lead to 69-68 before Wilkins scored on a putback with 2:12 left to push the lead to three.
Another Wilkins layup with 1:22 to play gave Barton a 73-68 lead. A Webster layup with 53 seconds left gave the Cougars a 75-68 advantage.
Butler cut the lead to 75-72 with 35 seconds left. From there it was up to the Cougars free throw shooting to secure the win.
Montague hit two free throws with 35 seconds to play. Marvin Cannon added two more with 18 seconds left and Barton had a comfortable 79-72 lead. Wilkins took his turn at the line, making 1-of-2 with 13 seconds for the final margin.
Barton dominated the boards, out-rebounding the Grizzlies 45-22.
Ford led Barton with 19. Wilkins had a big game with 15 points and 18 rebounds. White added 15 points and Montague 12 for the Cougars.
Butler made 11 treys on the night. The Grizzlies were led by Russell Smith with 17 and Karlon McSpadden with 15. Both hit three treys.
Barton will head to Liberal Saturday to take on Seward County. The game at the Green House will tip at 8 pm.

Barton 80, Butler 72
Barton 30 50 – 80
Butler 40 32 – 72
Barton (14-2, 18-2) 80
Wilkins 7-11 1-2 15, Ford 7-11 5-10 19, Cannon 1-4 2-2 4, Montague 3-8 4-4 12, Webster 3-9 2-2 9, Andrews 1-4 0-0 2, White 6-10 3-3 15, Dalyrimple 0-2 2-2 2, Broomfield 1-2 0-0 2. Totals – 29-61 19-25 80.
Butler (5-11, 8-11) 72
McSpadden 4-9 2-2 13, Armstrong 4-8 0-1 9, Bouchum 4-9 0-1 8, Moore 2-3 0-0 6, Smith 6-15 2-3 17, Criddle 3-7 3-3 11, Thornton 0-2 0-0 0, Berry 0-3 0-0 0, Bratton 4-5 0-0 8. Totals –- 27-61 7-10 72.
3-pointers – Barton 3-12 (Montague 2-4, Webster 1-5, Wilkins 0-1, Ford 0-1, Dalyrimple 0-1); Butler 11-27 (Smith 3-4, McSpadden 3-6, Moore 2-2, Criddle 2-3, Armstrong 1-4, Thornton 0-2, Bouchum 0-3, Berry 0-3).
Rebounds – Barton 45 (Wilkins 18), Butler 22 (Smith 6). Assists – Barton 6 (Wilkins 2), Butler 15 (Armstrong 5). Steals – Barton 2 (Webster, White), Butler 5 (McSpadden 3). Blocks – Barton 2 (Cannon 2), Butler 3 (3 with 1).
Turnovers – Barton 13, Butler 10. 

JAYHAWK CONFERENCE MEN
Barton 14-2 18-2
Hutchinson 13-3 17-3
Coffeyville 12-4 16-4
Colby 10-6 14-6
Garden City 10-6 14-6
Cowley 9-7 12-8
Seward County 9-7 13-7
Independence 8-8 13-8
Butler 5-11 8-11
Pratt 5-11 8-12
Neosho County 5-11 7-13
Cloud County 4-12 6-13
Allen County 4-12 6-14
Dodge City 4-12 6-14

WEDNESDAY’S GAMES
Barton 80, Butler 72
Colby 93, Allen 85
Seward 80, Cloud 64
Coffeyville 87, Dodge City 76
Garden City 66, Cowley 64
Independence 78, Neosho 55
Hutchinson 104, Pratt 84

Fort Scott 68, Hesston 66