Barton races past Hutch; stays alone on top of West standings

Barton races past Hutch; stays alone on top of West standings
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team gave Coach Craig Fletchall one of his most memorable wins of his coaching career Wednesday. The Cougars not only picked up a must home win in the Jayhawk Conference race, they delivered their coach his 1st win against his old home town. Barton drilled Hutchinson, 94-77, to stay alone on top of the Jayhawk West standings in front of the biggest crowd of the year at the Barton Gym. Coach Fletchall had lost his 4 previous games against Hutch, two at the helm of Barton last year and two with Neosho before coming to Barton. The win moved Barton, ranked No. 9 in the NJCAA, to 6-1 in the West and 19-1 overall. The Blue Dragons fell to 3-3 in the West and 16-4 overall. Barton will close out its first trip through the West Saturday when they travel to Colby for an 8 pm tip at the Community Building.

Highlights
Barton fell behind by double figures to start the game, as the Cougars have done on previous occasions this season. But the Cougars didn't let the game get out of hand. Down 20-8 just 5 minutes into the contest, the Cougars answered with a 17-4 run to take the lead on Hutch over the next 5 minutes.

Keying the run was freshman sharp-shooter Blaine Clark. The Lyons graduate came in and knocked down 3's on back-to-back trips down the floor, sending electricity through the 1900 people in the Barton Gym. When Clark hit his 3rd trey in 4 attempts, Barton had trimmed the Blue Dragon lead to 24-23. A steal and layup by Omar Johnson gave Barton a 25-24, capping an electric 5 minutes of basketball by the Cougars.

After trading the lead a few times over the next few minutes, Barton finished the half strong. A quick 10-0 run pushed the Cougar lead from 33-32 to 43-32 in just more than 1:30 of action on the court. The run was capped by a Matt Green steal to Johnson, who threw a behind the back pass to Wagner Bueno for a dunk at the 4:24 mark. Barton took a 50-41 lead to half. It was a half that saw Barton hit 18-of-34 shots from the floor, 6-of-14 3's, and 8-of-10 free throws. The Cougars also scored 22 points off 13 Hutch turnovers.

Hutch trimmed the lead 6 early in the 2nd half, but Barton responded with an 8-0 run to take a 62-48 with 16 minutes to play. From there, Hutch closed under double figures just once – with 11 minutes to play – as Barton cruised to the win.

Ivan Evans led five Cougars in double figures with 22 points, hitting 7-of-11 shots. Johnson finished with 18 and Clark scored a career-high 17 in the win. Bueno also had a career high with 16 while Thiago Cordeiro ended with 13. Johnson added 13 assists, 8 rebounds, and 7 steals to his 18 points from the point guard spot.

Hutchinson was led by Nate Brumfield 24 points and 10 rebounds. Nolan Richardson had 17 points as well for the Blue Dragons.

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

Next
Sat, Jan 27 – at Colby, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Community Building in Colby)

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