Hutchinson CC Sports Information

Starting the final third of the 2022-23 season, the Hutchinson Community College men's basketball team finds itself in a traffic jam in the Jayhawk Conference standings.

The Blue Dragons are in a four-way tie for fourth place in the conference. One of the teams the Dragons are bunched up with is Wednesday's opponent, the Pratt Beavers.

Hutchinson(14-6,8-6) and Pratt (11-8, 8-6) tip off at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Hutchinson Sports Arena. The game will be streamed live on the Blue Dragon Sports Network beginning at 3:45 p.m. The game will also be broadcast live on Blue Dragon flagship station KHUT-FM (102.9) and sister stations KWBW-AM/FM (1450/98.5) beginning at 7:15 p.m.

Entering play on Wednesday night, no less than 10 teams are still in the hunt for one of the top 4 seeds and opening-round bye in the upcoming Region VI Tournament.

Dodge City, Coffeyville and Butler are the top three teams and have a two-game lead on the field. That means six teams are battling for the fourth seed. Hutchinson, Pratt, Garden City and Cloud County are tied for fourth place with Barton 0.5 games back and Cowley and Seward County are two games off the pace.

Hutchinson earned a big home victory on Sunday with an 88-82 victory over Cloud County at the Sports Arena. Aaron Franklin and Jayden Garrison scored 19 and 18 points, respectively to pace the Dragons.

Garrison has been exceptional in his last three games. Named the KJCCC Division I Player of the Week on Tuesday, Garrison has scored 64 points and hit 14 of 28 3-pointers in that span.

Pratt comes into the Sports Arena a hot team with three-straight wins and four victories in its last five games. The Beavers topped Northwest Tech 93-72 on Monday night in Pratt in a weather-delayed game. Pratt blistered the Mavericks with 61.5 percent overall shooting. Jaylen Davis led five Pratt players in double figures with 27 points.

The Blue Dragons defeated Pratt in the first meeting of the season, winning 120-118 on November 22 at the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena in Pratt. The Blue Dragons had to overcome the 49-point performance of Pratt's Quintin Metcalf, who was 20 of 24 from the field in the first game.

Aaron Franklin posted his third 3-point game of the season with a team-high 34 points on 11 of 22 shooting. Franklin tied a career high with six 3-pointers on 16 attempts and was 6 of 6 from the free-throw line. Franklin added a team-high eight rebounds.

The combined 238 points scored in that first game was the most in series history and third-most combined points in Blue Dragon single-game history.