HUTCHINSON — The Barton Community College Cougars downed the Hutchinson Blue Dragons 91-86 to earn their 13th consecutive victory at the Hutchinson Sports Arena and their eighth in a row over the No. 23 ranked Dragons. The Cougars (15-4, 9-4 Jayhawk) sweep the 2-game series over Hutchinson (13-6, 9-4 Jayhawk), which had a 7-game winning streak snapped. Barton plays Garden City at home Saturday.
The teams combined for an amazing 35 points in the final two minutes.
Cougar Keandre Kindell scored a career high 26 points with five assists. NJCAA Player of the Week Brent Moss added 18 points and 14 rebounds. The Cougars limited their turnovers to six.
Aris Rodriguez sparked a 12-2 Cougar burst with six of his 15 points in the first four minutes of the second half. Eltramon Smith, Jr. delivered 10 points and nine rebounds.
Blue Dragon Kobe Smith and Ketraleus Bo Aldridge scored 19 points. Dragon Mikhail Abdul-Hamid knocked down 4-of-5 from deep for 12 points. Kahlil Arnold added 11 points. Hutchinson converted 11 of 18 3-pointers to outscore the Cougars 33-21. Aldridge was forced into nine turnovers.
Barton countered its second worst shooting outing of the year (38.9%) and Hutchinson's 50% shooting with its defense forcing 16 Blue Dragon turnovers resulting in plus-10 points on turnovers, a plus-9 rebound edge including 22 offensive rebounds leading to another plus-12 tallies of second chance points, and a solid 82.4% free throw shooting.
A Barton 9-0 run across nearly six minutes of a tightly played first half gave Barton the edge only to see Hutchinson chip away in leading by four with two minutes remaining.
After closing first half action with four straight for a 32-31 lead to the break, Barton extended the margin with another six straight led by Rodriguez' opening second half buckets then later added another two points closing out the Cougars' 12-2 stretch in matching its then largest lead of nine.
The Cougars pushed the gap to double-digits shortly after on Kindell and Moss baskets with 14:51remaining but ten minutes later were in a dogfight as Hutchinson closed within three with 6:55 left.
Rodriguez' 1-of-2 charity tosses followed by consecutive Fontaine Williams and Moss arc busters led the seven straight spurt for another double-digit lead but the Blue Dragons hung around the coop slicing the gap to seven with under three to play.
Enter the big play of Sebastian Muchitsch, hampered with fouls resulting in just thirteen minutes of court time, providing the big spark of a 17-second, five-point swing in draining a back-breaking triple then following a quick Hutchinson empty trip, getting loose on the low block depositing Rodriguez' feed quickly ballooning the lead out to its largest at 77-65 with 2:08 to play.
Barton 32 59 — 91
Hutchinson 31 55 — 86
BARTON (15-4, 9-4) (FG 3 FT TP)—Kindell 8-12 (1-2) 7-8 24, Moss 6-18 (1-2) 5-6 18, Rodriguez 5-9 (1-3) 4-6 15, Parlow 0-4 (0-1) 4-4 4, Muchitsch 2-6 (1-2) 0-0 5, Smith 2-9 (2-5) 2-2 8, Williams 2-9 (2-5) 2-2 10, Chuol 2-2 0-0 4, N'Gombo 1-3 1-2 3, Coombs (0-1) 0-0 0, Lyna (0-1) 0-0 0, Totals 28-72 (7-18) 28-34 91
HUTCHINSON (13-6, 9-4) (FG 3 FT TP)—Smith 5-7 (1-1) 8-8 19, Dudley 5-14 (2-4) 5-6 17, Aldridge 8-11 (1-2) 2-4 19, Cannon 2-7 (0-1) 1-1 5, Jackson 0-4 3-4 3, Arnold 4-8 (35) 0-1 11, Abdul-Hamid (4-5) 0-0 12, Totals 28-56 (11-18) 19-24 86
Rebounds—BC 43 (Moss 14); H 34 (Cannon 8). Assists—BC 15 (Kindell 5), H 15 (Aldridge 5). Steals—BC 11 (Kindell 2, Parlow 2), H 2 (Aldridge 2)
JAYHAWK MEN
Cowley 12-1 17-2
Coffeyville 10-2 14-4
Butler 9-3 14-4
Barton 9-4 15-4
Hutchinson 9-4 13-6
Colby 6-6 11-7
Garden City 6-7 11-8
Independence 4-7 8-9
Pratt 4-8 8-10
Cloud 4-9 11-8
Hays Northwest 3-9 5-11
Dodge City 3-10 6-13
Seward 2-11 3-15
1-19—Barton 85, Coffeyville 74; Cowley 69, Butler 59; Hutchinson 69, Dodge City 64; Cloud 84, Pratt 74; Garden City 71, Seward 52; Independence 111, Hays NW 94
1-22—Barton 91, Hutchinson 86; Cowley 90, Pratt 61; Garden City 72, Dodge City 70; Seward 76, Cloud 66
1-23—Hays NW at Coffeyville; Colby at Independence
