A pivotal third quarter swing provided the difference maker Saturday night at the Barton Gym as t the Barton Community College women's basketball team ended the weekend's Best Western/Cougar Booster Club Classic on the short end of a 66-60 loss to Labette Community College.
Dropping to 4-3 on the year, Barton will be on the road for its next pair of games before opening up conference play at home November 30th. The Cougars next contest comes on Tuesday in traveling to Iowa Western Community College with a Friday date in El Reno, Oklahoma, in taking on Redlands Community College. Labette concludes its' trip to Great Bend with a 1-1 record improving to 3-3 on the year.
The third quarter was the story of the game, ranging from shooting to turnovers, resulting in Labette outscoring the Cougars 23-10 in the frame. The Cardinals knocked down 3-of-7 behind the arc in a 50% shooting quarter while Barton connected for just 33% from the floor and compounded the issue with six turnovers in trailing by eight to the final quarter.
To begin the contest, Barton recovered from an early three point deficit to rattle off five straight coming from a pair of D'Shonda Hunt charity tosses and Queen Ulabo's first of a two first quarter treys putting Barton out front. The teams seesawed the lead the remaining 5:40 of the opening frame as Labette would end up carrying a 20-18 edge to the second quarter.
The Cougars grabbed the first four points of the second frame in outscoring the Cardinals 10-1 in the first three minutes. Ulabo's third long distance shot of the half capped the run as Barton pushed the lead up to seven before holding Labette at bay in reaching halftime on the top side of a 34-29 score.
After the pivotal third quarter, the Cardinals pushed the lead out to ten off a pair of free throws before Barton would begin to rally back. Tiffany Dortland led a comeback 8-2 stretch, draining consecutive treys to snap an 0-18 drought from beyond the arc in closing the gap to 58-55 with 4:23 left on the clock.
Labette's Denijsha Wilson's three-pointer on the ensuing possession was big in holding Barton off pushing the margin back to six with under four to play. The Cougars cut it to within four on Hunt's inside bucket with 2:36 remaining but the Cardinals nailed it down with 5-of-6 charity tosses down the stretch for just their second victory against Barton in eleven meetings.
Ulabo led the Cougars with her second consecutive double-double performance, drilling all four shots behind the arc in pumping in twenty-three points with ten rebounds and three assists. Hunt powered in twelve points with Kolby Davis' ten points accompanied by eight rebounds, five coming on the offensive glass.
Reigning conference player of the week Richelle Turney was held to just two points on 1-of-9 shooting with point guard Vanessa Oduah rattled for 1-for-8 shooting and seven turnovers as Barton would shoot just 37.5% from the field and commit twenty turnovers.
Wilson led the Cardinals with seventeen points coming off the bench with Jayla Smith and Gift Sampson each contributing ten points.
In the earlier contest, 7th ranked Hutchinson Community College jumped out to a shocking 24-0 start in cruising to a 90-55 victory improving to 6-0 on the year while sending Jefferson to its second consecutive loss dropping to 4-2.