Barton stumbles at Cloud; host Seward for West’s top spot Wednesday

Barton stumbles at Cloud; host Seward for West's top spot Wednesday
It was one of those games for the Barton County Community College women's basketball team. One of that contest that is easy to overlook and a mistake to do so. The Cougars entered the contest with Cloud County Saturday in Concordia on a 5-game winning streak and just one win from a 6-1 mark in the West and a battle with 6-1 Seward Wednesday looming for the top spot in the West. Cloud was just 1-5 in conference play. But the Cougars only lead of the game was 5-3 and it lasted just 10 seconds. Cloud County dominated most of the game then held on for a 61-56 win over Barton in Arley Bryant Gym. The loss dropped Barton to 5-2 in the West and 15-6 overall. Cloud is now 2-5 and 11-10. Barton will still battle Seward for a share of the lead Wednesday night at the Barton County Gym.

Highlights
The Cougars fell behind big early in the contest and struggled uphill the remainder of the way. After Barton had its only lead of the game at 5-3, Cloud went on a 14-2 run over the next 7 minutes of action as the Cougars struggled to score. Cloud was living off the 3-pointer, hitting 5-of-10 in the 1st half to take a 29-17 lead to halftime.

Barton hit just 7-of-29 shots from the floor in the opening half while Cloud hit just 10-of-27 but had those 5 treys. The T-Birds would push their lead to as high as 14 points in the 2nd half but the Cougars had a couple of rallies in them. With Cloud leading 43-30, Barton went on a 10-0 as Brittany Ridley scored 6 points and Sunshine Uli 4 points to make it 43-40 with 10:33 to play. But Cloud answered with a 7-0 run to make it a 50-40 game with just one minute later.

The lead grew too as many as 12 points again before Barton made another run. This time the Cougars 10-1 run keyed by a pair 3-pointer by Carly Bloomfield to make it 55-52 with 3:50 to play. Barton had two possessions to cut the lead even further but came up empty. The Cougars could only muster 4 more points the remainder of the way and would get no closer than 3 points.

The contest was the 1st time a team score 60 points or better since the West season-opening loss to Pratt and just the 6th time all season that has happened. Barton is 1-5 in those contests. The Cougars were paced by the inside duo of Vivian Ewalefo and Uli with double-doubles. Ewalefo scored 14 points and grabbed 13 boards while Uli added 12 points and 10 rebounds. The Cougars hit just 29 percent in the contest. Cloud was led by Erica Evans with 16 points including a 4-of-7 effort on 3-pointers. Ashley Ford added 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Stats
Full box scores and stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Wed., Feb. 2 – v Seward County, 6:30 pm (Jayhawk West contest the Barton County Gym)