The Hutchinson Blue Dragons started the second half on a 23-4 run and went on to beat 19th ranked Barton Saturday night 71-60 at the Sports Arena. With the loss, Barton (22-5 8-5) dropped into 3rd place in the Jayhawk West behind the Blue Dragons who won their 7th straight game and improved to 8-4 in the West.
Hutchinson’s (21-5 8-4) big second half run came after a strange halftime that included a 20 minute halftime ceremony and then an additional 20 minute delay after a malfunction with the shot clock. Workers changed out the shot clock, but after the work was done the two teams had waited 40 minutes since the first half ended. That was the end for the Cougars.
Tied at 29-29, Hutch scored 9 straight points to take a 38-29 lead. They would increase the lead to 52-33 and that was just too much for Barton to overcome. The Cougars did cut the lead to 7 at 67-60 but the Blue Dragons were never seriously threatened.
Dwayne Brunson led Barton with 23 points and 17 rebounds. Alex Davis had 18 points and 9 rebounds for Hutch who avenged a 22 point loss to the Cougars in Great Bend back in January.
Barton will now fall out of the top 20 for the first time since early in the season after going 2-3 over their last 5 games. They now get a week off before hosting Colby Saturday.
#2 Hutchinson 59 Lady Cougars 44
Barton fell behind early 13-2, then played the number 2 ranked team in the country almost even the rest of the way in losing 59-44.
Unbeaten Hutch (25-0 12-0) struggled all night to solve the Lady Cougars zone defense, but Barton didn’t have enough offense to pull off the upset. Barton (16-11 6-7) shot just 23% from the field and turned the ball over 18 times compared to just 7 for the Blue Dragons but still found a way to stay in the game throughout.
Sophomore Netanya Jackson scored 14 points with 11 rebounds for her second straight double-double to lead the Lady Cougars. Laura Patrick paced Hutch with 17.
Barton hosts Colby on Saturday.