Unranked Cougars knock off second straight ranked opponent, take down No. 23 Hutchinson for 13th straight win at Sports Arena #GoBarton

Knocked out of the national Top-25 for the first time in twenty-three weeks of the polls dating back to February of 2023, the newly unranked Barton Community College men's basketball team knocked off its second straight ranked opponent as the Cougars went on the road Wednesday night returning with a 91-86 victory at No. 23 Hutchinson Community College.

Notching its 8th straight win of the series including third straight on the Blue Dragons' home floor and 13th straight overall at the Sports Arena, Barton improves to 9-4 in KJCCC play and 15-4 overall while Hutchinson's league leading 7th straight victory streak is snapped sliding to 9-4 in league and 13-6 on the season.

The new found momentum looks to carry into the Cougars' upcoming two-game homestand, the first coming in Saturday's 4:00 p.m. tip against Garden City Community College followed by Wednesday's 7:30 p.m. contest hosting Cloud County Community College.

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.

Scoring seven points being saddled with first half foul problems, Keandre Kindell returned to the final frame with vengeance adding another seventeen for a new career high 26 points on 8-of-12 shooting, 7-of-8 from the free throw line, and dished out a game high 5 assists with two of the Cougars' 11 steals.

Reigning two-time player of the week and recently announced as receiving the NJCAA honor as well, Brent Moss continued his torrid stretch with 18 points and 14 rebounds, half of his boards coming on the offensive glass, for his 8th double-double of the season.

Aris Rodriguez scored six of his 15 points in the first four minutes of the second half as part of a 12-2 Barton start to the final frame with Eltramon Smith, Jr. giving the Cougars a big surge off the bench with 10 points in just missing his first collegiate double-double grabbing a career high 9 rebounds.

Five Blue Dragons reached double-digit scoring being led by Ketraleus "Bo" Aldridge and Kobe Smith's 19 points each with Dimitrius "DJ" Dudley close behind with 17 points.

Much like the Cougars' Kindell, Mikhail Abdul-Hamid made up for first half foul problems to light up second half play keeping Hutchinson in the game by knocking down 4-of-5 from deep in finishing with 12 points. Kahlil Arnold rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 points on 3-of-5 three-pointers helping the Blue Dragons to a 11-of-18 evening beyond the arc.

RECAP
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 14:51 remaining 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.

From there Barton maintained atleast a two-possession margin as the teams traded a whopping 35 combined points in the final two minutes.