The Barton Community College women's basketball team's hope of an early season upset bid fell short 68-59 Saturday afternoon to No. 17 Western Nebraska Community College in the final day of the Atrium Classic held at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
The 1-1 weekend for each team moves Barton's mark to 2-2 overall while the Cougars of Western Nebraska leave Hutchinson at 3-1 in the young season. Barton will have a short turnaround for its next contest in a home Monday evening 5:30 p.m. tip-off against the reserve squad of Kansas Wesleyan University.
Gaining the early lead on their first possession of the game on a Richelle Turney three-pointer at the top of the key, Barton would find themselves down double-digits just four minutes later following a Western Nebraska 16-2 run. The Lady Cougars suffered through a 2-for-11 shooting stretch until Hannah Valentine caught fire coming off the bench scoring four straight helping Barton close the quarter on a 6-0 run trimming the margin to 19-11.
Trailing by as many as thirteen midway through the second quarter, Barton began to get hot from downtown as newcomers Bryn Wilt, Valentine and KayCee Miller provided nine of the Cougars' final twelve points to outscore WNCC by seven in the quarter to trail by just 30-29 heading into the locker room.
Barton's hot shooting continued into the third frame, scoring four straight gaining their first lead since the opening possession of the game. The Cougars increased their lead to its largest of seven as Vanessa Oduah's triple capping a 7-0 run with 4:03 to play. The lead wouldn't last throughout the quarter as WNCC countered with 10-of-the-last-12 points to take a one point advantage to the fourth.
The Cougars would jump out front one more time two minutes into the final frame following a pair of Valentine throws and a Turney trey but WNCC rallied back for the final time behind a seven unanswered before while holding Barton scoreless over the final 3:10.
Turney led just two Cougars to reach double digits with 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting while Valentine contributed eleven off the bench connecting on four of her five shots from the field. Queen Ulabo and Oduah each finished eight points and shared team high rebound honors with eight as Barton outboarded the taller Cougars of the north by one.
WNCC also just had two players reach double-figures in combining for over half the squad's points. Tishara Morehouse led all players with twenty points on 8-of-19 shooting including 3-of-6 from behind the arc while R'Manie Pulling contributed 16 off the bench. Yuliyana Valcheva snared down a team high seven rebounds while finishing a point shy of a double-double performance.