Broncbusters roll to fifth straight win

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-Early Monday afternoon, Bill Morosco got the welcome news that he was named the National Junior College Coach of the Week after leading his team to back-to-back wins over ranked opponents. And that was before he even pulled off his best coaching job of the season.  

2:24 into their rematch with Barton, Tone Hunter, the conference's second leading scorer, took a shot to his right collarbone from Cougars' center Evans Kipruto. The star guard immediately doubled over in pain. His night was over.

"We are not sure yet on Tone," Morosco said after the game. "Hopefully we can get him back soon."

Even without Hunter, press city handcuffed the Cougars forcing 26 turnovers that led to 32 points, Mo Diarra and Heru Bligen combined for 50 points, and Garden City won its fifth in a row with a 94-84 victory Monday night at Conestoga Arena. The Broncbusters improved to 13-5 overall and 7-5 in the Jayhawk, moving within a single game of third-place Butler.

"To gut out this win with June (Rodney Lewis) just getting back, Heru stepping up big in Tone's absence, and playing a team that was at one point the preseason No. 12 team in the country, to get a season sweep over Barton is huge."

Garden City won the game despite shooting just 36 percent from the floor. They outrebounded the Cougars 41-39, produced 17 assists on 28 made baskets and outscored Barton's bench 36-28.

But the game didn't start off well.

Following Hannes Saar's triple from the right wing, the visitors were up 8-0 four minutes into the game. Diarra helped settled things down with a beautiful three-point play, Bligen sliced through for a layup, and Micah Octave, whose plane landed in Garden City about four hours before game time, knocked in a three-footer, to pull the Broncbusters to within one. Then, after the Cougars went back up by eight, Morosco's team took over the period, outscoring Barton 26-10 over the next 10 minutes to build a 39-31 advantage once Bligen swished a free throw with 2:10 left. They were up, 41-37 at the break.

"We found a way to win despite losing a guy who averages 20 points per game," Morosco explained. "That's tough."

The Cougars quickly made it a two-point game early in the third after Saar's layup made it 49-47. But that's as close as Barton got the rest of the way. Jyre McCloud got all the way to the rim, Diarra hit nothing but net on three free throws after drawing a foul on Modibo Sanogo shooting a 3-pointer, and Bligen knocked down two freebies to give the Broncbusters their first double-digit lead of the night. Marko Dosen followed with a triple, Bligen added a second-chance bucket, and Josh Nwankwo, who was back for his second straight game after missing the previous six with a foot injury, drained two charity shots to give Garden City their largest lead of the night, 71-50 with 9:56 on the clock.

"We knew this game was going to be really tough, especially after coming off an emotional game like we had on Saturday," Morosco admitted. "I'm just proud of all of these guys. They played great."

Barton did manage to slice the deficit to single digits thanks to a 24-12 run that was capped by two Cougar Downing free throws to make it 83-74 with 3:49 to go. But Diarra responded with four big free throws and a transition slam down the stretch, and Garden City improved to 5-0 in 2022.

Diarra notched his 12^th double-double of the season with 28 points and 15 rebounds in 31 minutes. Octave had 13 points, six rebounds, and four steals off the bench.

Downing poured in 28 points for Barton, which lost its second straight game. Kipruto had 10 points and six rebounds before fouling out after playing just 13 minutes.

Next up: Garden City at Coffeyville-Wednesday, Jan. 19-7:30 p.m.