The first round of the Region VI Tournament has not been kind to the Barton men’s basketball team the few years.
Heading into the opener Thursday night at the Barton Gym, the Cougars had lost three straight openers – the last two on their home floor.
The second-seeded Cougars drew an unlikely No. 15 seed in traditional Jayhawk power Seward County. In fact in eight of the previous nine years, Seward has made it to at least the semifinals of the Region VI Tournament.
But Barton finally broke through into the quarterfinals with a 76-62 win over the Saints.
“It just feels good to get this first round out of the way,” Coach Fletchall said. “Seward battled. They didn’t quit. I’m proud of our guys. This is a fun team to coach and they deserve to move onto the next round.”
The last time Barton made it out of the first round, the Cougars reached the Region VI title game in 2013.
Barton will look to duplicate that feat this season, starting Sunday night at Hartman Arena in Park City. The Cougars will battle No.7 seed Cowley at 7 p.m..
It was definitely a hard night of work for Barton to advance. A proud Seward team, suiting just seven players, did not make it easy.
In fact the Saints led as late as 40-39 with 14 minutes to play in the game. It was at that point Malik Toppin scored in the paint, Anthony Smith followed with a breakaway dunk and Jahlil Rawley made it back-to-back fast-break dunks to give Barton a 45-40 lead.
The Cougars run continued. Charles Norman scored and was fouled. His free throw made it 48-40 and gave Barton its biggest lead of the game with 12 minutes to play. Toppin’s turnaround pushed the run to 12-0 and gave Barton a double digit lead at 50-40.
Barton would not trail again.
The Saints kept things close, cutting the Barton lead to as low as four on a couple of occasions with about five minutes to play. But the Cougars would not let them get any closer.
The Cougars finished the game on a 10-0 run.
Four Barton players scored in double figures led by Toppin with 17. Smith scored 15 points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. Rawley had 12 points and a game-high 10 assists. Charles added 10.
Barton made 17-of-19 free throws in the game and committed just 10 turnovers.
Seward was led by Malik Brown with 15.
The first round saw a couple upsets as third seeded Dodge and fourth seeded Cloud both went down to defeat. Barton’s next opponent, Cowley, had very little trouble, winning 92-50 over Northwest Tech.
Barton 76, Seward 62
Seward 29 33 62
Barton 31 45 76
Seward (9-22)
Johnson 5-11 1-4 11, Carter 0-3 0-0 0, Beauregard 4-11 2-2 10, Wilson 5-9 4-4 14, Brown 5-9 2-2 15, Simmons 0-0 0-0 0, Kidd 5-8 0-0 12. Totals – 24-51 9-12 62.
Barton (24-7)
Rhodes 0-5 8-8 8, Rawley 5-9 0-0 12, Toppin 8-11 1-2 17, Smith 5-9 5-6 15, Charles 4-8 2-2 10, Norman 3-9 1-1 8, Barbee 2-3 0-0 4, Palmer 1-5 0-0 2. Totals – 28-59 17-19 76.
3-pointers – Seward 5-15 (Brown 3-7, Kidd 2-3, Beauregard 0-3, Johnson 0-1, Carter 0-1); Barton 3-13 (Rawley 2-3, Norman 1-3, Rhodes 0-3, Charles 0-3, Barbee 0-1).
Rebounds – Seward 27 (Carter 7), Barton 33 (Smith 10). Assists – Seward 11 (Johnson 8), Barton 20 (Rawley 10). Steals – Seward 5 (Beauregard 3), Barton 10 (Rawley 3). Blocks – Seward 4 (Wilson 3), Barton 8 (Toppin 4)
Turnovers – Seward 15, Barton 10. Fouled Out – Beauregard, Seward. Technicals – None.
Region VI Tournament
First Round
1 Hutch received a bye
9 Indy 82, 8 Garden 69
13 Pratt 82, 4 Cloud 76
5 Butler 90, 12 Allen 51
14 Neosho 79, 3 Dodge 77
6 Coffeyville 77, 11 Colby 56
2 Barton 76, 15 Seward 62
7 Cowley 92, 10 Northwest Tech 50
Quarterfinals
Sunday at Hartman Arena in Park City
1 Hutch (29-1) v 9 Indy (14-16), 1 p.m.
13 Pratt (11-19) v 5 Butler (18-12), 3 p.m.
14 Neosho (12-19) v 6 Coffeyville (19-12), 5 p.m.
2 Barton (24-7) v 7 Cowley (17-14), 7 p.m.
Semifinals
Tuesday at Hartman
Hutch/Garden winner v Cloud/Butler winner, 7 p.m.
Barton/Cowley winner v Dodge/Coffeyville winner, 5 p.m.
Finals
Wednesday at Hartman
Championship Game, 7 p.m.
