It has been road unkind thus far for Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division teams.
Only two teams — Co-West leaders Hutchinson and Cloud County, both 3-0 — haven’t tasted a road defeat in the early portion of the conference race.
“It’s one thing to play on the road, but (Garden City) has a very good team,” said Barton head coach Craig Fletchall, whose team is 13-4 overall and 1-2 in West play, including road losses to Cloud County (85-78) and No. 25 Seward County (82-70) last week in successive games.
“We talked in length (Thursday) in practice that the schedule is going to benefit us down the stretch, if we can just fight through these tough times early. February is going to be good to us, and that’s when you want to be playing your best basketball anyway.”
To be sure, Garden City (12-4, 1-1) is just one of many difficult road tests for the Cougars, who bottled up Dodge City 77-61 Wednesday night in their conference home opener.
“We want to win and we want to play well,” Fletchall said, “but we want to look for improvement. We have three games in five days with Butler at home on Monday and NJCAA top-ranked Hutchinson (17-0, 3-0) next Wednesday.”
Maximizing possessions will be paramount when Barton heads out west to Garden City on Saturday night. Game time is set for 8. The Cougars committed only 10 turnovers and shared the ball with point guard Storm Sanders handing out nine of their 25 assists.
It appears as though the Cougars are at their best when they get out in transition. At least that’s been the case when post players Dwayne Brunson and Adam Young, along with swingman Colin Beatty and guard Carl Wallace, get out on the run.
“Most definitely,” Fletchall said. “We did it early (Wednesday night) and Dodge did a better job getting back. We didn’t get out as much as we usually do, but we’re clearly a  better team in transition.
“More teams are playing zone this year. I think what hurt us in the Cloud game maybe helped us a little bit in the Dodge City game because we’re starting to see it more now, and our guys are getting a little more used to facing a zone. We didn’t see many during the first semester.”
While holding opponents to a chilly 28.5 percentage from beyond the arc on the season (87 of 305), Barton hasn’t been much better, making only 31.9 percent through the first 17 games (111 of 348).
“Most of the teams that I have coached in the past have obviously been run-and-gun and fast-paced and shoot 3s and be more guard-oriented,” Fletchall said. “It seems like this year our strengths are with Dwayne and Adam and Colin.
“We don’t shoot is well from the perimeter and it’s definitely a weakness. I like our guards, but in these first four games, they all have been salty guards.