EL DORADO – The top part of the Jayhawk East has not been kind to the Barton men’s basketball team.

Wednesday night made it three straight losses to the top three teams from the East side of the Jayhawk for the Cougars.

The latest of those was an 87-70 loss to Butler in the Power Plant at El Dorado. It was the third straight loss for the Cougars.

Barton is now 1-4 in the Jayhawk and 2-4 overall on the season. Butler, sitting tied for third in the East behind No. 3 Coffeyville and Cowley, is 4-2 and 6-2.

The game turned during a 6-minute stretch in the first half. Barton took its final lead of the game when Shawn Warrior converted two free throws for a 17-15 lead with 12:20 to play in the opening half.

Butler would score the game’s next seven points on the way to a 16-2 run. That gave the Grizzlies a 31-19 lead with 8:37 to play in the half and they never looked back.

In fact, Barton never got the lead back to single digits after that.

Any hopes of a second half comeback by the Cougars were dashed early as Butler opened the final 20 minutes on a 6-0 run to push the lead to 52-33.

Three Cougars hits double figures in the loss, led by Justin Harmon with 18. Desean Munson added 15 and Asanti Price 14. Price also added eight rebounds and four assists.

Butler’s Shawn Hopkins led all scorers with 29.

The Cougars will look to right the ship and end their 3-game skid when Cloud County pays a visit to the Barton Gym Saturday before Barton begins its journey through the West side of the conference.

The Thunderbirds will bring a 2-3 Jayhawk mark to the contest and are 4-3 overall this season. Cloud owns conference wins over Northwest Tech and Pratt on the season.

Tip for the game is set for 4 pm.

Butler 87, Barton 70

Barton     33  37 – 70

Butler       46  41 – 87

Barton (2-4, 1-4) 70

Harmon 6-13 4-5 18, Munson 6-8 3-5 15, Holden 0-3 1-2 1, Koehler 1-3 1-1 3, Price 5-13 1-2 14, Warrior 1-4 2-2 4, Jones 1-4 0-0 2, King 1-2 0-0 2, Lapoole 3-4 2-3 9, Brooks-Harris 1-3 0-2 2, Kipruto 0-1 0-0 0. Totals – 25-58 14-22 70.

Butler (6-2, 4-2) 87

Payne 2-5 3-4 7, Pruitt 7-9 2-4 18, Hopkins 10-15 7-8 29, Thomasson 4-6 10-12 20, Williams 0-2 1-2 1, Bowden 1-1 0-0 3, David 0-3 3-4 3, McGarthy 0-2 0-0 0, McCaskill 0-1 0-0 0, Thomas 2-11 0-0 6, Miller 0-0 0-0 0. Totals – 26-55 26-34 87.

3-pointers – Barton 6-18 (Price 3-7, Harmon 2-3, Lapoole 1-2, Holden 0-1, Warrior 0-1, Jones 0-1, King 0-1, Brooks-Harris 0-2), Butler 9-24 (Pruitt 2-2, Thomasson 2-2, Hopkins 2-3, Thomas 2-8, Bowden 1-1, Williams 0-1, Payne 0-2, McGarthy 0-2, Davis 0-3).

Rebounds – Barton 24 (Price 8), Butler 32 (Thomasson 8). Assists – Barton 14 (Price 4, Jones 4), Butler 18 (Thomasson 6). Steals – Barton 5 (Jones 2), Butler 5 (Thomasson 2). Blocks – Barton 1 (King), Butler 0.

Turnovers – Barton 10, Butler 12. Fouled Out – Brooks-Harris, Barton. Technicals – Jones, Brooks-Harris, Barton.