By KEVIN PRICE
kprice@gbtribune.com

The Barton Community College women’s basketball team has the daunting challenge tonight at 6 at Kirkman Athletic Center, hosting the top team in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division — Hutchinson.
Forget the fact that Barton’s last loss came at the hands of the No. 12-ranked Lady Blue Dragons on the road on Jan. 20.
But the Cougars, 18-9 overall, 10-3 in the West, are currently on a seven-game conference winning spree that has launched them to No. 2 in the division standings. Hutchinson is 24-2, 11-1).
“Hutch has a bigger win streak than we do right now,” Barton head coach Keith Ferguson said. “We’ve been playing well and they’ve been playing well. The kids are pretty excited to play. They want to prove that we can play ball.”
For both teams, their previous game was against Butler. Hutch bested Butler at home on Feb. 10., 60-40. The win opened the door for Barton to slide into second in the standings with a win against Garden City on that same night.
The Cougars then had their date at Butler on Saturday, beating the Grizzlies 67-61.
“The kids were patient,” Ferguson said of his team’s play against Butler. “They didn’t get into an up-and-down situation with Butler, which is something we wanted to do, and it’s something we’ll need to do with Hutch. We need to make Hutch defend for 20 to 30 seconds.”
Christina Caddy continues to lead Barton with 13.4 points per game. Alisha Fanshier is the second, averaging 12.6 points.
Ferguson said that he was happy with his team’s situation in the standings.
“We know if we win out, we have second place,” Ferguson said. “We are going to need a lot of help to catch Hutch, and if we lose (tonight) we’ll need some other teams to win to help us stay in second, but we don’t want to put our playoff seed in the hands of someone else.”

BCC men look to right
their ship for stretch run
The Barton men will try to rebound from a tough road loss at Butler last Saturday night, when the Cougars host Hutchinson, which is ranked No. 23 in the NJCAA poll, at 8.
The Cougars, who are 18-9 overall and 6-7 in the KJCCC West, are on a skid that has seen them lose four of their last five games.
In spite of their misfortunes, a couple of wins could easily lift them several places in the West with Dodge City, Hutchinson and Butler sitting ahead of the Cougars at 7-6, 6-6 and 6-6 in the conference.
Hutch’s last game was against Butler on Feb. 10., where the Blue Dragons were trumped by the Grizzlies, 82-73.
Barton’s Saturday meeting with Butler ended with the Grizzlies on top 82-58.
Dwayne Brunson leads the Cougars with 14.1 points per game. Colin Beatty is right behind him at 13.2.