No. 18 Butler Finds Tough Sledding at No. 22 Barton

GREAT BEND, Kan. – The 18th ranked Butler men's basketball team was unable to secure a road win on Wednesday evening, suffering a 92-75 defeat to the No. 22 Barton Cougars at the Barton Gym.

Butler (16-6, 11-5 KJCCC) lost for a second straight game, slipping into a solo hold of fourth place in the league standings while the Cougars (18-5, 12-5) move a half game ahead into third. Butler is now 4-5 in the spring semester after getting out to a 12-1 start to the season.

The Grizzlies (23-67) got off one more shot than the Cougars (27-66) despite being outrebounded 50-42 in the game. Butler shot 8-37 (21.6%) from deep while Barton knocked in 9-23 from beyond the arc.

Seven Bahati opened the game with a layup to put Butler up 2-0, their last lead of the game. Barton responded with a 10-0 run to go up 10-2. The Barton lead jumped to as high as 15 with 10:57 in the half. Butler answered with an 8-0 run to pull within seven at 28-21 and later cut the Cougar lead to one on a Bahati free throw to make it 38-36 with 2:58 to play. The Grizzlies outscored Barton 24-9 from the 10-minute mark to the three-minute mark of the first half before Barton countered with an 11-2 run to close the half out leading by 10 at 48-38.

Barton led by as many as 25 in the second half. The game was filled with free throws with the Cougars shooting 29-37 (78.4%) compared to Butler's 21-36 (58.3%).

Grizzly guard Russell Branch led the team in scoring with 14 points, playing just 19 minutes as he ended the game with four fouls. Seven Bahati notched a season-high 13 points and six assists despite shooting just 3-12 from the field. Big man Emeka Opurum had 12 points and seven rebounds with Rashad McCormick adding seven rebounds off the bench.

Barton's Brent Moss had 22 points and 18 rebounds while Aris Rodriguez finished with 19 points and Keandre Kindell had 13 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals. Eltramon Smith Jr. added 11 points rounding out the double digit scorers for Barton.

The Grizzlies return to action on Monday, Feb., 10th, traveling to Fort Hays Tech Northwest with tipoff set for 8:30 p.m. CT