Lady Cougar redemption, Barton pulls upset at Cowley to advance to region quarterfinals

The Barton Community College women's basketball team bounced back from disappointment three days earlier to feeling the joy of redemption as the Lady Cougars upset nationally receiving votes Cowley College 82-76 in Arkansas City Saturday.  The first-round Region VI Tournament victory improves Barton to 19-12 and ends Cowley's season at 22-9.  Barton will next play No. 20 Seward County Community College (26-5) in the quarterfinals at 3:00 p.m. Wednesday at Wichita State University's Koch Arena.

Cowley came out of the gate firing, connecting on their first three shots to race out to a 7-0 lead just 1:37 into the contest.  Following a Barton timeout, Brandy Winbush drained the first of her five three-pointers on the evening as the Lady Cougars scored five straight to get back into the contest.  

The Lady Tigers against built the lead back out to seven before another 5-0 stretch by Barton cut the deficit to 18-16 at the midway point of the first half.
Barton would tie the game at twenty-two as the teams exchanged buckets until a 4-0 run gave Barton its first lead at 29-27. Again the teams matched points for points and settled for a 31-all gridlock going into the halftime intermission.

Cowley was the early aggressor in the second half, getting out to a three point advantage six minutes into the second frame to lead 43-40. It would be the last time Cowley would have the lead scored eight straight and eleven of the next thirteen points.  Cheyenne Hedrington started the run with a long baseline two pointer followed by two threes from Phikala Anthony and another by Mariana Lambert.   

A left wing trey and a right baseline trey by Winbush and a Lambert old fashinoned three-point play spurred Barton to a game deciding 9-3 run giving the Lady Cougars its largest lead of eleven with a little over four minutes to play.

Cowley cut it back to five with 2:30 to play but it was as close as they could come. Despite only shooting 13-of-24 (54.2%) from the charity stripe, Barton hit just enough to score their last eight points from the free throw line to hold on for the 82-76 victory.

Cheyenne Hedrington led four Lady Cougars in double digit scoring with her ninth double-double of the season scoring twenty points and grabbing ten rebounds to go along with four assists.  Knocking down 5-of-7 from behind the arc, Brandy Winbush scored a career high seventeen points and fellow sharp shooter Mariana Lambert came off the bench to score sixteen, hitting on two of her four shots behind the arc.  Ashton Bruner scored fourteen while leading the team in assists with five and steals with three.  In addition to Lambert, Phikala Anthony was also a big lift off the bench scoring nine points including 2-of-3 on three pointers.  Despite being saddled by foul problems throughout the night, point guard Kailai Brantner dished out a game high six assists in only sixteen minutes of floor time.

Cowley placed three players in double figures paced by the thirty points from sharp shooter Emilie Gronas.  Fighting around screens all night, Gronas nailed 5-of-8 shots behind the arc and shot 50% from the field while also leading the team in assists with three.  Julie Ravyn scored thirteen but was only 3-of-11 behind the arc and 5-of-17 from the field while Kristi Garza contributed ten.

Both teams were solid from the field as Barton shot a season high 57.7% from the field (30-of-52) and 60% from behind the arc (9-of-15), including a 7-of-8 performance in the second half.  Cowley had a good shooting night as well finishing at 44.1% from the field (26-of-59) and 42.9% behind the arc on 9-of-21 shooting.