After a heartbreaking 100-96 overtime loss on Saturday, the Pratt Community College mens basketball team will need to beat Cowley for a third time this season in order to keep playing beyond tomorrow night.
Pratt’s loss, coupled with Cloud County’s win over Hutchinson, dropped the Beavers into a tie for sixth place with Garden City (which lost at Dodge City), and based on their win over Hutchinson in January, the Broncbusters had the tiebreaker over PCC.
That, combined with Cowley’s loss to Neosho County Saturday afternoon, matched the Beavers and Tigers up in tomorrow’s first round of the Region VI Tournament.
Earlier this season, Pratt beat the Tigers 59-57 in Arkansas City thanks to a shot by Monty Gordon with 1.1 seconds on the clock. The Beavers added an 86-70 win over Cowley during the PCC Thanksgiving Classic behind 21 points from Jay Valerius.
The playoff game will tip off at 7 p.m. in Scott Auditorium, following the Pratt-Cowley womens game at 5 p.m.
Saturday night, the Beavers started slow but climbed back within three points at halftime despite hitting just one of their first 15 shots.
“We had so many shots at the goal in the first half, but we couldn’t make anything,” PCC coach Trevor Rolfs said. “The kids were battling, they were hitting the boards.”
Pratt took a 54-52 lead on back-to-back threes by John Rutherford and Trae Beck, the latter coming with 15:36 left in the second half as it capped a 10-0 Pratt run.
But Barton responded with a 7-1 run and the Beavers trailed by a few points until the 2:15 mark when Rutherford buried another three for an 84-83 lead.
With 1:21 on the clock, Gordon got a defensive rebound and was fouled. He made the front end of the one-and-one for an 85-83 edge, and twenty seconds later, Illi Baldwin blocked a shot and got the rebound, setting the Beavers up to put the game away.
But with 45 seconds left, Barton stripped the ball from a driving Marcus Smith, and that led to a pair of free throws by Ronald Baker, tying the score at 85 with 39 seconds to go.
Gordon drove to the basket and was looking to dish the ball to Baldwin when he was fouled with 7.2 seconds left. He missed both free throws, Barton’s half-court heave was off the mark, and everyone regrouped for overtime.
In the first two minutes of overtime, Barton got to the free throw line eight times, hitting four of them to take an 89-85 lead while fouling Baldwin and Beck out in the process.
But the Beavers responded with a bucket by Rutherford at the 1:33 mark to make it 89-87.
After Barton’s Samar Jassar missed two free throws, Trent Thomas scored in the lane to knot the score at 89 with 1:19 left.
Jassar scored on a putback with 1:01 left, but Rutherford answered with another three for a 92-91 lead with 45 seconds left.
As they had all game, the Cougars found a way to respond, this time with a three by Baker for a 94-92 lead with 34 ticks left.
Gordon was fouled with 29.5 on the clock, but left the game with an injury and the Cougars selected Taner Hayes to shoot in his place. Hayes couldn’t get either shot to fall, and he was whistled for a foul while fighting for the rebound.
That sent Baker to the line, where he drained a pair for a 96-92 lead with 27.4 left.
Rutherford scored on a putback with 18 seconds left, but the Beavers had to foul again, and Barton hit all four free throws in the final 16.5 seconds to secure the win.
One of the most frustrating things Saturday night was that it felt like the Beavers were in control several different times late in regulation.
“We had that game won two or three times,” Rolfs said. “It was a hard-fought Jayhawk Conference game, back and forth, back and forth.”
But as has been the case several times this season, the free throw line proved to be the difference in the game.
Barton hit 28 of 39 for 71.8 percent, while Pratt was just 15 of 32 (46.9 percent), including one-for-ten in the final seven minutes of the game.
“We did everything we needed to do to win, but then couldn’t make a 15-foot free shot,” Rolfs said.
The only two Beavers who hit more than 60 percent of their free throws were Beck (3-for-4) and Thomas (2-for-2) while Gordon was four of 14, Rutherford missed both his free throws, Baldwin made three of five, Hayes was two-for-four and Valerius went one-for-two.
In the second half, Pratt hit 40 percent from three-point range but just 30 percent at the free throw line.
Rutherford had a team-high 19 points to go with three assists, while Beck added 18 points. Gordon scored 18 plus had five rebounds, eight assists and three steals.
Smith scored 13 points, including six in a three-minute stretch of the first half. He also controlled seven rebounds and had two steals. Thomas added 12 points and nine boards.
Hayes had eight points and four assists while Baldwin grabbed seven rebounds and Valerius had two steals.
Barton got 34 points from Karon Burton and 23 from Baker.
Barton 100, Pratt 96 (OT)
BCC: Karon Burton 11-25 8-14 34, Ronald Baker 6-8 7-8 23, Joseph Reid 3-10 6-7 12, Colin Beatty 3-8 3-3 11, Kevin Smith 3-7 3-4 9, Samar Jassar 3-5 1-3 7, Ebenezer Davis 1-2 0-0 2, Tyler Springer 1-3 0-0 2, Cody Branham 0-0 0-0 0, Dennan Morrow 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 31-68 28-39 100.
PCC: John Rutherford 7-11 0-1 19, Trae Beck 5-12 3-4 18, Monty Gordon 7-16 4-14 18, Marcus Smith 6-14 0-0 13, Trent Thomas 5-20 2-2 12, Taner Hayes 3-3 2-4 8, Illiwa Baldwin 1-5 3-5 5, Jay Valerius 1-3 1-2 3, Shaquille Hall 0-0 0-0 0, Jamar Reese 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 35-84 15-32 96.
BCC 43 42 15 — 100
PCC 40 45 11 — 96
3-point goals – BCC 10-28 (Baker 4-6, Burton 4-11, Beatty 2-7, Davis 0-1, Smith 0-2, Springer 0-1), PCC 11-34 (Beck 5-10, Rutherford 5-8, Smith 1-8, Gordon 0-2, Thomas 0-6). Rebounds – BCC 52 (Beatty 9), PCC 52 (Thomas 9). Assists – BCC 9 (Burton 4), PCC 18 (Gordon 8). Turnovers – BCC 18, PCC 13. Total fouls – BCC 27, PCC 28. Fouled out – Burton, Reid, Smith, Baldwin, Beck, Rutherford. Technicals – None.
