Barton slugs out win over Seward for 4th straight victory in West play
The Barton Community College women’s basketball team wasn’t able to run up 80 points like the previous 3 Jayhawk West contests but it was able to grind out a 59-53 win over Seward County Saturday night at the Barton Gym. The Cougars won their Homecoming contest making it 4 straight in the West and 7 of their last 8. The only loss in that time came at No. 14 Hutchinson. Barton is now 7-3 in the West and 15-9 overall. Seward fell to 5-5 in the West and it is also 15-9 overall. Barton is back on the road Monday to take on the last place team in the conference in Dodge City.
Barton slugs out win over Seward for 4th straight victory in West play
The Barton Community College women's basketball team wasn't able to run up 80 points like the previous 3 Jayhawk West contests but it was able to grind out a 59-53 win over Seward County Saturday night at the Barton Gym. The Cougars won their Homecoming contest making it 4 straight in the West and 7 of their last 8. The only loss in that time came at No. 14 Hutchinson. Barton is now 7-3 in the West and 15-9 overall. Seward fell to 5-5 in the West and it is also 15-9 overall. Barton is back on the road Monday to take on the last place team in the conference in Dodge City.
Highlights
Perhaps the biggest key to the Barton win was the fact the Cougars made it to halftime down by just 2 points. Despite turning the ball over nearly one time per minute the Cougars were still in the game. Barton went to half with 19 turnovers and hit just 8-of-25 shots from the floor. But Barton's defense forced 10 turnovers of its own and limited the Saints to just 29 percent shooting itself. And thanks to a 5-for-5 effort from the floor and 3-for-3 on 3-pointers, Christina Caddy kept the Cougars around, trailing just 31-29.
The Cougars weren't able to get the lead in the 2nd half until less than 8 minutes remained in the contest. Barton finally passed the Saints on a Raven Adams steal and layup with 7:33 to play for a 46-44 lead. The Cougars would not trail again. Seward did tie the game twice, including at 53-all – the 10th and final tie of the game – with 58 seconds left.
But the Cougars didn't crumble. On the ensuing possession, Barton ran the shot clock down and Alisha Fanshier found Adams open on the right wing for a 3-pointer with just 31 seconds to play. Adams then stole the ball on Seward's attempt to tie and was fouled, hitting 1-of-2 free throws for a 57-53 lead with just 9 seconds to play. Caddy added 2 more free throws with 6 seconds to play for the final margin – the biggest lead of the night for the Cougars.
Caddy led Barton with 17 points and 9 rebounds. Adams added 11 and 5 steals while Dionne Harris contributed 10 points and 7 rebounds. Barton limited its turnover total in the 2nd half to 9 while forcing the Saints into 14 2nd half turnovers. Former Cougar Hannah Rotolo led the Saints with 10 points and 5 steals but turned the ball over 9 times.
Barton will head to Dodge City in quest of a 5-game West winning streak Monday in a 5:30 pm tip at the Civic Center. Dodge is currently 0-9 in the West and 7-16 overall. The Cougars are in 3rd place in the West behind Hutchinson (9-1) and Butler (8-2).
Stats
Stats can be found was www.bartonsports.com
Next
Feb 7 – at Dodge 5:30 pm (Jayhawk West game at the Civic Center in Great Bend)