The Barton men’s basketball team ran into a shooting juggernaut Saturday in its regular season finale. Hutchison put up 94 points and shot 61 percent from the field on the way to the Jayhawk Conference win.
Hutch won 94-77 to finish the Cougars regular season at 10-9 in the conference and 18-12 overall. Hutchinson, with one game to play, is tied with Neosho at 15-3 at the top of the conference. The No. 7 Blue Dragons are now 26-3 on the year and have won 10 straight.
The loss keeps the Cougars from wrapping up the fifth seed in the region. Barton will finish fifth if Seward beats Colby in the regular season finale. If Colby wins that game, Barton will be the sixth seed in the Region VI tournament.
The teams traded the lead in the first half before Hutch closed the final 10 minutes by outscoring Barton 25-13 to take a 43-37 halftime lead.
The Cougars came out in the second half and tied it up at 48-all in the first three minutes. That would be the highpoint for the Cougars. Hutchinson would outscore Barton 22-8 then next seven minutes to take control of the game, 70-56 with 10 minutes to play.
Barton did not seriously threaten after that.
The biggest difference in the game was the hot shooting of the Blue Dragons. Hutchinson hit 33-of-54 shots from the field, including a sizzling 11-of-21 on 3-pointers. Barton shot the ball pretty good itself, shooting 47 percent from the field and making 9-of-21 treys.
Ezekiel Charles was the only Cougars to hit double figures with 18 points. Dequandre Dentmond paced Barton with 14 rebounds to go with nine points, just missing a double-double.
Hutch, meanwhile, had five players in double figures led by Akbar Hoffman with 20 points. Shakur Juiston scored 15 and grabbed 12 rebounds. Keanu Pinder was a thorn in the Cougars side, going 3-for-3 on 3-pointers on his way to 16 points. It was the third 3-pointers made for Pinder in his career.
Barton will get its region seeding Tuesday. The Cougars will host either Coffeyville, Allen County or Cowley County Thursday.