HCC Sports Information
With only four games remaining in the regular season, the Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team is still looking to secure a home game for the first-round of the Region VI Tournament.
In the short term, the Blue Dragons are trying to stop a nasty late-season slide that has reached four straight and 6 losses in their last nine games.
HCC will try to reverse its fortunes on Wednesday night at a place that isn’t easy to win at … the Barton Community College Gym.
Now 23rd in the latest NJCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Poll, the Blue Dragons (20-6, 6-6 Jayhawk West) travel to Barton (19-8, 6-7) for at 8 p.m. tipoff in Great Bend.
The game will be broadcast live on Blue Dragon Flagship Station KHUT-FM (102.9) and on sister station KWBW-AM (1450) with Glen Grunwald (play-by-play) and Rusty Hilst (analysis) calling the action beginning at 7:50 p.m. The game will also be videostreamed on the Blue Dragon Sports Network beginning at 7:50 p.m.
With two weeks remaining in the Jayhawk West season, Seward County, despite some recent struggles, has a 2 1/2-game lead on the field, but only 1 1/2 games separates second and seventh place. Garden City and Cloud County are tied for second with 7-5 records. Dodge City is fourth at 7-6, while HCC and Butler are tied for fifth at 6-6. Also in the tightly-packed bunch is Barton at 6-7.
Needless to say, in order to have a first-round regional game at home, Wednesday’s showdown between the Blue Dragons and Cougars is critical to both.
What adds to HCC’s issues is that Barton already owns a 70-63 victory over the Blue Dragons, which occurred on Jan. 20 at the Sports Arena. Plus, Butler owns the head-to-head tie-breaker with HCC should those two teams finished tied.
Hutchinson has had a week off since falling 82-73 at home to Butler last Wednesday. Butler then knocked off Barton 82-58 on Saturday night in El Dorado.
Barton is also struggling for wins as of late. The Cougars have lost 4 of 5 with two setbacks coming in overtime. Barton has lost three Jayhawk West games this season in overtime.
The Cougars coming into Wednesday’s game averaging 78.3 points offensively and 69.2 points defensively. Barton shoots 42.8 percent overall and 28.0 percent from 3-point range. Defensively, the Cougars surrender 39.6 percent shooting, 30.9 percent from 3-point range.
Dwayne Brunson lead Barton’s leading scorer at 14.1 points per game while shooting almost 52 percent from the field. Colin Beatty averages 13.2 points.
The Blue Dragons look for better overall shooting as the season heads into the final stretch. During conference play, Hutchinson is shooting just 25.7 percent from 3-point range and its offensive scoring average has dipped almost five full points off its season scoring average at 76.9 points per game.
Turnovers have also been an issue in conference play. The Dragons are a minus 2.4 in turnover ratio, turning the ball over 18.1 times per game.
Sophomore Joe Mitchell, who against Butler became the 12th Blue Dragon ever to score 1,000 points, leads the team in scoring at 18.8 points per game. Sophomore Will Nelson and freshman Mark Braden also average in double figures at 13.2 and 11.0 points per game, respectively.
Balladeer's Blog 
Blue Dragons sounds awesome! Do they play football?
They sure do! And baseball too! Thanks for commenting !