Barton earns trip to Region VI Finals with 69-60 win over Hutch
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team moved to within one game of making its 4th-ever trip to the NJCAA National Tournament with a semifinal win over rival Hutchinson Monday night at the Bicentennial Center in Salina. The Cougars won the Region VI semifinal battle by a 69-60 score, sending the No. 10 team in the nation home for the season and keeping alive the Cougars hopes of returning to the NJCAA Tournament for the 3rd time in 6 seasons. Barton (25-8) will take on the Jayhawk East Champ Coffeyville tonight at 8 pm for the Region VI title. Coffeyville (27-6) has won the last 2 Region VI titles. Hutch, the Jayhawk West Champ, finished its season at 29-4.

Highlights
After a slow start to the contest, Barton was in control most of the way. The Blue Dragons jumped out to a quick 7-0 start but the Cougars answered with 5 straight of their own points and never trailed by more than 4 points the rest of the way. In fact Barton put together a 9-1 late in the 1st half to take a 29-23 lead with just less than 1 minute to play and never trailed the rest of the game. Barton led 31-26 at half despite the Cougars' leading scorer, JP Batista, being held to just 2 points on 1-of-2 shooting from the floor.

The Blue Dragons were able to trim the lead to 2 on a pair of occasions in the 2nd half and trailed 50-44 when the Cougars' Aubrey Bruner stuck a 25-foot 3-pointer for a 53-44 lead with 5:40 to play. The Cougars pushed that to 55-45 following a Tyler Luke tip in with 5:02 left. Hutch would make another run at Barton trimming the lead to 60-56 with 1:20 left. But 7-of-8 free throw shooting in the final 1:07 of the game sealed the win for the Cougars.

Justin Rose had another big game for Barton as the sophomore poured in a 20 points to match his season high, which also came against Hutch in Barton's win over the Blue Dragons earlier this season. Rose is averaging more than 16 points a game in the Region VI Tournament. Bruner added 13 points and committed just 2 turnovers in 39 minutes after the freshman point guard struggled against Cowley County with 10 turnovers. Batista was held to 10 points, the lowest total other than a 6 point outing to start the season in 9 minutes of action against the Lamar (Colo.) Alumni in a 121-60 win. Josh Rose also added 10 points keyed by a 6-of-7 effort at the free throw line. Brandon Gary scored 11 points and Aaron Pettway 10 for the Blue Dragons.

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

Next
March 9 – v Coffeyville, 8 pm (Region VI Championship at the Bicentennial Center in Salina)

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