A pivotal stretch of instances provided the final difference maker Wednesday night as the Barton Community College men's basketball team dropped a hard fought 96-91 overtime loss to Hutchinson Community College on Camp Hope Night at the Barton Gym.
Dropping back-to-back games for the first time of the season, the Cougars slide into a second place tie with Pratt Community College in the Jayhawk West at 13-7 and 25-8 overall while Hutchinson locked in a top four standing improving to 12-8 and 21-8 on the year.
The Cougars conclude the regular season Saturday against Garden City Community College. Tip-off time at the Barton Gym set for 7:30 p.m. with sophomore recognition taking place following the Lady Cougars' contest against the Broncbusters.
Featuring eleven ties and sixteen lead changes, the final flip for the winning margin took place in the last eight seconds. Following Keandre Bowles' 1-of-2 trip to the free throw line tying the game with thirty-two seconds remaining, the Blue Dragons worked the clock down setting up Josh Baker's dip the head and drive getting fouled fifteen feet from the bucket with eight seconds remaining. Baker missed the first charity toss but after a Barton timeout, blocked out the deafening Barton faithful cheers in sinking the second toss putting Hutchinson up 92-91.
The Cougars pushed the ball up the floor with Diovonte Caldwell getting tripped up on the way to basket, falling forward to be issued a charging call, returning the ball to the Blue Dragons with three seconds remaining. An ensuing technical on the Barton bench for protest sent Tyler Brown to the line, sinking both of the technical free throws with DJ Mitchell adding another pair a second later as the Cougars were forced to foul, resulting in the final five point margin.
Trailing by twelve with eight minutes to play in the opening frame, the Cougars closed the gap to two heading into the locker rooms as Jaheim Holden's up and under reverse layup to beat the buzzer capped a 7-0 run to close the half.
Neither team could gain more than a six point separation the final twenty-five minutes of action.
Barton did however need some clutch free throw line shooting down the stretch to force overtime, as Caldwell was fouled on a three-point shot with ten ticks left on the clock. The sophomore knocked down the first two of the awarding and following a Hutchinson timeout, sank the third in tying up the game at 76-all. Hutchinson got off a decent look at a twelve foot baseline jumper but the rimmed out potential game winner was hauled down by one of Anthony Atkinson-Enneking's team leading seven rebounds.
Enneking led four Cougars in double figures, scoring a career high twenty points off the bench on 7-of-8 shooting while dishing out a career high seven assists to go along with the seven boards. Mavrick Gildyard and Bowles each tallied eighteen with Caldwell adding fifteen points
Mitchell led five Blue Dragons in double figures finishing with nineteen points on 5-of-11 shooting. Baker dished out a career high eight assists to go along with eighteen points. Majok Kuath and Brown each contributed thirteen with Josh Ursery finishing with twelve. Saquan Singleton grabbed a game high nine rebounds to lead Hutchinson with a slim 40-39 edge of the glass.