Cougars rebound with win over No. 5 Hutchinson

Cougars rebound with win over No. 5 Hutchinson
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team put themselves back in the thick of the Jayhawk West race Wednesday night with a 70-63 win over Hutchinson at the Barton County Gym. The win over the 5th ranked Blue Dragons left Barton tied in a logjam for 2nd in the West at 4-2 with Colby, Hutchinson, and Garden City. Butler leads the West with a 5-1 mark. Barton is now 16-4 overall while Hutch falls to 18-2.

Highlights
The two teams traded the lead 11 times in the opening half with Hutchinson taking a 36-34 into the locker room. The Cougars turned the ball over 11 times in the half with Hutch scoring 10 points off those turnovers. Barton offset that turnover number by hitting 15-of-25 shots from the floor.

The Blue Dragons came out and pushed the lead to 39-34 before Barton put things together. The Cougars put together an 11-1 run capped by a Rone Smith lay-up with 14:40 to play for a 45-40 lead. Barton would not lose that lead the rest of the way. When sophomore Tyler Luke blocked a Nanquan Jackson jumper then fed Justin Rose for a dunk that brought the crowd of 2053 to its feet, the Cougars had pushed their run to 16-3, leading 50-42 with 11:23 remaining. The barrage continued for Barton as the Cougars run extended to 23-6 when JP Batista dropped in a lay-up with 7:43 to play and Barton led 57-45.

The closest Hutchinson would get the rest of the way was 4 points with 4:16 to play but the Blue Dragons did not score the next 3 minutes as Barton took control and put the game away thanks to some good free throw shooting from freshman Aubrey Bruner, who hit 5-of-6 from the line. After committing the 11 1st half turnovers that resulted in 10 Hutch points, the Cougars turned the ball over just 5 times in the 2nd half that resulted in only 2 Hutch points.

Rose scored a season-high 20 points for Barton to go along with 6 rebounds. Batista, who scored 13 1st half points, ended 19 points and 10 rebounds for his 6th double-double this season. Batista, like Rose in the 2nd half, put down a thunderous 1st half dunk on a break. Bruner, who struggled in the opening half with 3 turnovers just 2-of-5 shooting, sparked Barton down the stretch, hitting those 5-of-6 free throws in the final 4 minutes as well burying a jumper from a tough angle on the right baseline in that time as well. The freshman point guard did not turn the ball over the entire 2nd half.

Hutchinson was led by Durrall Peterson with 17 points, hitting 5-of-10 3-point attempts. The Blue Dragons leading scorer, Brandon Gary, was limited to just 10 points – all from the free throw line. Gary, who entered the game with a scoring average of 18.5, did not hit a field goal the entire night, going 0-for-5 from the floor. Gary was 10-for-13 at the line.

Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Jan. 25 – at Dodge City (Jayhawk West contest at the Civic Center)

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Check out Barton County Men's Basketball Online at www.bartonccc.edu/sports