Outside shooting sinks Cougars at No. 5 Hutchinson #GoBarton

The Barton Community College women's basketball team gave No. 5 Hutchinson Community College a tough first half battle Wednesday night at the Hutchinson Sports Arena but turnovers and barrage of Blue Dragon 3 pointers was too much to overcome in a 63-46 loss.

The Cougars led three times in the opening seven minutes with Alaina Eck's three pointer 2:16 in gifting Barton their largest lead of 5-2 before Regina Donanu sunk the final Cougar trey of the evening three minutes ensuing handing Barton its final lead 8-7 with 3:56 to play.

Despite six first half Blue Dragon three pointers, the Cougars only trailed by five at the midway point, but the tide quickly faded early in the third quarter following Donanu's basket with 7:44 to play with the Cougars going scoreless over the next three minutes while the Blue Dragon offense heated up behind a 10-0 run in building up a 14-point lead.

Climbing back within nine following a 5-0 run keyed behind a trio of Donanu points with 2:51 to play in the third, Hutchinson's Hailey Jackson scored two of her 15 second half points stretching the Blue Dragon lead back to double-digits for good with a 12-3 start to the fourth quarter opening up the largest lead of 21 following the 10th rung in three pointer coming with 5:45 remaining.

Suffering its second straight loss, Barton falls to 4-9 in league play and 8-11 overall while Hutchinson bounces back after having its 54-game winning streak snapped Saturday at No. 4 Dodge City improving to 12-1 in league play and 18-1 overall.

The Cougars will return home to begin a two-game homestand starting Saturday afternoon in a 2:00 p.m. tip-off against Garden City Community College before hosting Cloud County Community College next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

Donanu led a pair of Cougars in double-figure scoring matching her career high performance from Saturday with a game high 24 points on 10 of 25 shooting with four rebounds, one assist and one steal.

Although drawing double and triple teams all night, sophomore Vivian Onugha extended her streak to nine straight games with a double-double posting her 15th of the season behind 10 points on 4 of 6 shooting and hauling in a game high 17 rebounds including six on the offensive side.

Barton finished 19 of 49 for 46.2-percent, going 2 of 15 from beyond the 3-point line and 6 of 13 from the free-throw line. The Cougars out-rebounded Hutchinson 43-29 but was outscored 22-20 inside the paint and 14-7 in second chance points along with 27 turnovers leading to a plus-13 point Blue Dragon point differential.

Hutchinson shot 36.4 percent for the game (24 of 66) hitting 10 of 33 from 3-point range tying the most allowed by the Cougars all season while going 5 of 10 from the charity stripe.

Landon Forbes led a pair of Blue Dragons in double-digit scoring with 21 points behind a career high 7 of 13 shooting night behind the arch after coming into the game making 16 three-pointers all season long. Forbes also added game highs in assists with six and steals with four to go along with two rebounds.

Jackson rounded out Hutchinson's double-figure scoring adding 15 of her 19 points in second half action and pulled in six rebounds.