Cougars run winning streak to 5; roll by West leading Hutch, 97-75

Cougars run winning streak to 5; roll by West leading Hutch, 97-75
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team continued its hot play of late with a resounding 97-75 win over Jayhawk West leading Hutchinson Saturday night at the Barton Gym. The win was the 5th straight for the Cougars and their 7th in the last 8 games. Barton secured a home playoff spot with the win, assuring its self of a top 4 finish in the West. The Cougars are now 9-6 in the West with only a trip to Colby Wednesday left in the regular season. Most other teams in the West still have 2 dates left to play. Barton is 21-7 overall while Hutch fell to 21-7 overall as well and is now 11-3 in the West. Hutch is tied with Seward at 11-3 while Cloud is 10-4. Barton could still finish as high as 3rd in the West but would need Cloud losses at home to Dodge and at Hutch.

Highlights
After falling behind in the opening 5 minutes of the contest, the Cougars dominated the final 35 minutes of play. With the biggest crowd of the year on hand, Barton kicked it in at the 15-minute mark and never let up. Down 15-8, Barton went on an 11-0 run in less than 3 minutes keyed by a Chris Jackson 3-pointer and a Chip Steven trey, giving Barton a 19-15 lead with 12:24 to play. The Cougars would not trail the rest of the night.

The Blue Dragons cut the lead to 23-22 midway through the half but another Jackson 3 started a 17-4 run that gave Barton a 40-26 lead on Hutch with 5 minutes left in the half. Jackson added 2 more treys in the run and Steven 2 as well. From that point on, Barton would lead by at least double figures. Barton took a 51-33 lead to intermission.

The opening half saw the Cougars hit 7-of-10 3-pointers to propel them to a 54 percent shooting effort from the field in the 1st half. Meanwhile, Hutch did not make a 3-pointer in the half and hit just 14-of-36 shots from the floor. Jackson, who didn't play last game due to an ankle sprain, showed he was healthy again with 17 points in 17 minutes for the Cougars in the half.

The 2nd half saw the 3-pointers continued to fall as Barton hit 6-of-8 for a combined 13-of-18 for the game – 72 percent. Barton led by as many as 28 in the half before settling for the 22-point win. It was the worst loss of the season for the Blue Dragons.

Jackson ended the night 7-of-7 on 3-pointers for 25 points. The 7 treys in a game are 5th best all-time in a game at Barton. The most ever in a game at Barton is 9. Three players have 8. He was joined by Qa'rraan Calhoun with 25. Calhoun also led Barton with 9 rebounds and handed out 4 assists. Javon Parris led Barton with 6 assists. Sandy Perry scored a career-high 18 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Steven hit 4-of-5 3's and finished with 16 points and 5 assists. The Blue Dragons were led by Bobby Maze with 29 points. But the sophomore, who leads the league in assists and scoring, was limited to just 1 assist and 5 turnovers.

Barton will conclude its regular season with a trip to Colby Wednesday night before getting the final playing date of the season off as its bye date the 2nd time through the slate. That will give the Cougars a week to prepare for its opening round playoff game, which will more than likely be Allen County on March 5.

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

Next 
Wed Feb 23 – at Colby, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Community Building in Colby)

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