Cougars burned by red hot Blue Dragons

The Barton Community College men's basketball team ran up against the hottest team in the region Saturday night at the Sports Arena as No. 7 ranked Hutchinson Community College rolled in second half play for a 94-77 victory.   Trailing by six at the break Barton battled back to tie it at forty eight before the Blue Dragons put together a 17-4 run breaking the game open with the Cougars never able to recover.  The loss ends the regular season for Barton at 9-8 in conference play and 18-12 on the season while Hutchinson won its tenth straight to control its destiny for the conference title Monday at Garden City improving to 15-3 and 26-3 on the season.   Barton will next turn its sights on the Region VI playoffs as the Cougars earned a first round home game set for Thursday, February 25, in a 7:00 p.m. tip-off against an opponent yet to be determined.

Ezekiel Charles was the lone Cougar to reach double figures scoring eighteen points.  Dequandre Dentmond just missed his seventh double-double of the season scoring nine points and grabbing a team high fourteen rebounds with five coming off the offensive glass.  John Barbee led the Cougars in assists coming off the bench to dish out four dimes.

Hutchinson placed five players in double figures led by the twenty point effort from Akbar Hoffman.  Samajae Haynes-Jones and Keanu Pinder each contributed sixteen while Shakur Juiston came off the bench to record a fifteen point twelve rebound performance while dishing out five assists.  James Conley also came off the bench to add ten points while leading the Blue Dragons with six assists.