Barton lets contest slip away at Hutch
The Barton County Community College men's basketball team led much of the night at the Sports Arena in Hutchinson Saturday, but in the end were not able to bring home a win. The Cougars lost the lead in the final minutes as Hutchinson rallied for a 75-69 win over Barton to end the Cougar's 2-game winning streak in the West and conclude a 3-game road stretch for Barton. Barton, now 7-12 overall and 2-3 in the West, will return home Wednesday to take on Dodge City. Hutch is also 2-3 in the West and is now 12-5 overall.

Highlights
The Cougar led for all but 2 1/2 minutes in the opening half and again for about 14 of the opening 15 minutes of the closing half. Barton's biggest lead in the game came at the 13:22 mark of the 2nd half when the Cougars held a 50-43 lead on the Blue Dragons. Barton still led by 5 points with 8 minutes to play.

The sword in the side for the Cougars was the 3-point shooting of the Blue Dragons. Hutch shot 7-of-14 on 3-pointers in the opening half to stay close to Barton. The Blue Dragons only had 10 total 1st half field goals. For the contest, Hutchinson knocked down 11-of-22 3-pointers in the contest led by a Michael Williams 5-of-6 effort. That allowed Williams to tie a career-high with 23 points.

The dagger to the Cougars was driven by Durrall Peterson in the game's final minute. Hutch clung to a 69-67 lead with the shot clocking winding down when Peterson pulled up and hit a long trey from beyond the top of they key to give the Blue Dragons a 72-67 lead with 35 seconds to play.

Barton was led by Antanas Kavaliauskas with 22 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the floor. The 6-11 post hit 5-of-7 1st half shots and 5-of-6 2nd half shots in 37 minutes of play. Marcus Barrett added 15 points – 11 in the 1st half – and Adam Hrycaniuk added 10 off the bench as well. The Cougars lost for the 1st time this season when they shot at least 50 percent from the field, hitting exactly 50 percent on 24-of-48 shooting.

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

Next
Wed., Jan 25 – v Dodge City, 7:30 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton County Gym)

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