Down by 17 late in the first half, it looked like the Barton men’s basketball team was on its way to back-to-back losses.

But against the No. 13 team in the country and staring at three losses in four games, the Cougars found their game in front of the biggest crowd of the year.

Barton closed the first half on a 21-3 run and kept it going to start the second half on the way to a 102-87 win over Hutchinson Community College at the Barton Gym Wednesday night.

The win propelled Barton back into the thick of the Jayhawk West race. The Cougars (17-4, 8-4 Jayhawk) are a 1/2 game behind the Blue Dragons (18-4, 9-4 Jayhawk).

Seward (10-3) leads the West after losing 80-78 at Northwest Tech.

“It was a great atmosphere tonight,” Coach Fletchall said. “I think that helped give us some energy.”

It took Barton more than three minutes to break the seal on the basket. Akeem White did that with a spinning layup with 16:46 left cut the lead to 6-2. That would the beginning of a career night for the New York sophomore.

Barton took its first lead at 12-10 on a Leondre Washington layup with 14:18 left in the half. Elijah Ford would make it a 9-0 run and 14-10 lead.

Then things got away from the Cougars.

By the media timeout in the first half, Hutchinson had put together an 11-0 run to take a 25-18 lead.

The Blue Dragons made 16 of their first 21 shots from the floor and led 36-25 lead with seven minutes left in the half.

The lead got to 44-27.

Then Barton got on a roll.

Five straight by White started it. A pair of treys by Breontae Hunt in just more than one minute made it 46-43 with 1:50 left. A suddenly hot Hunt hit a driving layup and it was 46-45 with just more than one minute left in the half.

Tyrell Andrews gave Barton a 48-47 lead with 13 seconds left on a layup and free throw as the Cougars closed out the first 20 minutes on a 21-3 run.

“We were pretty good for six minutes,” Coach Fletchall said. “Hopefully we can look back at that at say that changed our season.”

Barton shot out of the gates to start the second half. When White threw down a breakaway dunk and showed his excitement with the Barton student section, the Cougars had a 54-47 lead less than two minutes into the half.

Back-to-back baskets by Anthony Enneking, making just his second career start, extended the run to 10-0 and got the Barton Gym rocking three minutes into the half as Barton took a 58-47 lead. That made it a 31-3 over nine minutes spanning the two halves.

Hutch never really threatened again.

The Blue Dragons did get it down to six before a Diovonte Caldwell deep 3 then basket in the lane pushed it back to 66-55.

The closest Hutch would get would be five, 81-76, with 7:44 as Coach Fletchall burned a timeout to settle his team.

Ford stopped the 6-0 run out of the time out with a tip-in to settle Barton down and started a personal 4-0 run of his own as the Cougars regained control.

A 3-pointer by Caldwell with 5:18 left matched Barton’s biggest lead of the night at 91-78. Another trey by Caldwell less than one minute later made it 94-80 and it was beginning to become clear it was Barton’s night.

The final nail came when Saquan Singleton fouled out for Hutch. Singleton did not leave the floor and was given a technical when he waved off the official who told him to leave the floor.

Martin Vogts two free throws made it 98-83 with 2:36. White would get his career-high and put Barton over the century mark with a layup a minute later.

White ended with that career high 31. Caldwell finished with 16, Ford 14, Washington 11 and Hunt 10. Enneking grabbed nine rebounds in his biggest game as a Cougar.

Offensively, Barton turned the ball over just eight times, handed out 21 assists and shot 51 percent from the floor.

DJ Mitchell led Hutch with 23 and James Rojas added 19 – both off the bench to lead Hutch.

Two more homes games await Barton. Garden City comes to the Barton Gym Saturday and Allen County comes in Monday for the make up from Jan 12. Both tip at 7:30 pm.

BARTON 102, HUTCHINSON 87

Hutch  47 40 – 87

Barton 48 54 – 102

HUTCHINSON (18-4, 9-4)–Mitchell 7-11 4-4 23, Rojas 6-11 6-7 19, Taylor 7-9 2-3 16, Singleton 3-5 3-5 9, Kamissoko 4-6 0-2 8, Jacobs 3-4 0-0 6, Odihiambo 1-1 0-0 2, Brown 1-3 0-0 2, Giles 1-6 0-2 2, Perkins 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 33-56 15-23 87.

BARTON (17-4, 8-4)–White 14-20 2-3 31, Caldwell 6-11 1-1 16, Ford 7-16 0-1 14, Washington 3-10 4-5 11, Hunt 4-5 0-0 10, Williams 2-4 0-0 6, Vogts 2-7 2-2 7,  Enneking 2-4 0-1 4, Andrews 1-3 1-1 3, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Bryson 0-1 0-0 0, Morris 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 41-81 10-14 102.

3-pointers–H 6-16 (Mitchell 5-8, Rojas 1-2, Singleton 0-1, Kamissoko 0-1, Brown 0-2, Giles 0-2), B 10-21 (Caldwell 3-5, Hunt 2-2, Williams 2-3, White 1-1, Washington 1-3, Vogts 1-4, Bryson 0-1, Ford 0-2). Rebounds–H 30 (Singleton 9), Barton 38 (Enneking 9). Assists–H 14 (Rojas, Taylor 3), Barton 21 (Caldwell, Ford 6). Steals–Hutch 6 (Kamissoko 2), B 6 (6 with 1). Blocks–Hutch 2 (Mitchell, Taylor), B 3 (3 with 1). Turnovers–H 19, B 8. Technicals–Jacobs, Singleton, Hutch.

JAYHAWK WEST MEN

Seward County 10-3 17-5 

Hutchinson 9-4 18-4

Barton 8-4 17-4

Colby 8-5 13-9

Garden City 4-9 9-13

Pratt 3-9 10-11

NW Tech 3-10 11-11

Dodge City 2-10 7-14

JAYHAWK EAST MEN

Coffeyville 12-1 21-2

Independence 7-5 12-9

Cowley 7-6 15-8

Butler 6-7 13-9

Neosho County 6-7 13-10

Cloud County 6-8 12-11

Allen County 4-7 12-8

WEDNESDAY

Barton 102, Hutchinson 87

Cowley 68, Butler 61

Colby 79, Garden City 68

NW Tech 80, Seward 78

Neosho 84, Cloud 80

Pratt 79, Dodge City 68