Garden City loses to No. 1 Barton

Garden City, KS-Brent Moss scored 24 points, Fontaine Williams chipped in 14 in 29 minutes off the bench, and top-ranked Barton snuck past Garden City, 82-77 Saturday night at Conestoga Arena.  

Keandre Kindell scored 15 points for the Cougars, which won their 34^th straight game to improve to 7-0 overall and 2-0 in league play. 

Antonio Chol had 25 points and pulled down nine rebounds for Garden City, which dropped to 4-3 overall and 0-2 in the Jayhawk.  

The Cougars looked like they were going to put this game away early thanks to a 21-7 run. Modibo Sanogo made a layup, Sebastian Muchitsch connected on a midrange jumper, and Moss hit a turnaround in the paint to make it 31-16 with five minutes to play in the half.  

But the Broncbusters dragged themselves off the canvas, responding with a 10-0 surge that was capped by back-to-back layups by Chol and Harker. After Williams answered with a 3 on the other end for the Cougars, Chol rattled the rim with a two-handed transition slam, and Harker nailed a wing 3 to pull Garden City to within one. They were down two at the break. 

After Barton built a 12-point lead in the second half, the Broncbusters rallied again with a 10-2 run. Emmanuel Manyuon, who earlier in the week committed to Pacific University, drilled a triple from the top of the key before dishing to Chol, who finished the break with a right-handed layup to trim the Cougar advantage to 74-70 with 2:24 to go. Chol then drilled a 3 moments later to make it a one-possession game. 

But the defending national champs answered every run with a big shot.  Leading by three with less than a minute to go, the Broncbusters missed a chance when Isaiah Dixon swatted Kindell's layup attempt. The ball instead landed out of bounds giving Barton another shot. Moments later, Williams knocked down a 15-footer to give the visitors a 78-73 advantage. 

Harker scored 19 points and had six assists for the Broncbusters. Caleb Smith added 12, but he was just 3-of-10 from the field. Jace Steinmetz scored six points for a second unit that was outscored, 23-13.