Hutchinson CC Sports Information

After a disastrous month of January, the Hutchinson Community College men's basketball team hopes February will bring a flip of fortunes starting on Saturday.

The Blue Dragons travel to Seward County at 8 p.m. on Saturday in a Jayhawk West contest at the Green House in Liberal.

The game will be broadcast live on Blue Dragon flagship station KHUT-FM (102.9) and sister stations KWBW-AM/FM (1450/98.5) at 7:50 p.m. with Glen Grunwald (play-by-play) and Daren Dunn (color) calling the action. The game will also be streamed live on the Blue Dragon Sports Network at 7:50 p.m.

Hutchinson went 4-5 in the month of January, but the Blue Dragons were in position to win all five games. Two games went to overtime, one double overtime. All five losses came by a total of 22 points.

The latest loss came Wednesday to first-place Barton at the Sports Arena. The Dragons led by 88-84 and 90-87 in the final seconds only to see the Cougars nail to guarded 3-pointers, the second at the buzzer, to force overtime. Barton outscored Hutchinson 12-5 in the extra frame.

D.J. Mitchell scored 19 points to lead five Blue Dragons in double figures. Freshman Jaden Okon scored a career-high 16 points.

The Blue Dragons are now in fourth place in the Jayhawk West at 7-6. Hutchinson, Pratt and Seward County are now in a three-team battle for the final two home spots for the Region VI Tournament - the top four teams in each division earn home opening-round games - with eight games remaining.

Seward County rolled to a 78-53 home win over Northwest Tech on Wednesday night. The Saints used their league-leading defense - Seward County leads the conference defensively allowing 65.6 points per game (17th in NJCAA) - to limit the Mavericks to 36.5 percent shooting and force 35 Tech turnovers.

The Blue Dragons look to snap a three-game losing streak to the Saints, who swept Hutchinson in three games last season. The final game was an 81-76 win over the Blue Dragons in the Region VI Tournament championship game.

Saturday's meeting between Hutchinson and Seward County will be the 108th meeting in a series that started in 1970. The Blue Dragons lead the overall series 76-41.

With five assists against Barton on Wednesday, sophomore Saquan Singleton moved in the Blue Dragon career Top 10 in assists with 224. He moved past Tony Brown (1981-83) into 10th place.

Sophomore D.J. Mitchell is on the threshold to joining the Blue Dragon career Top 10 for 3-pointers. Mitchell had four treys against Barton to move within two 3-pointers of moving past Keldrick Brooks (1994-96) into the Top 10. Mitchell has 105 career 3-pointers.