Cougars avenge earlier loss; win 74-68 at Pratt

Cougars avenge earlier loss; win 74-68 at Pratt
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team showed it is growing up Saturday night by pulling out a hard-fought, come-from-behind 74-68 road win at Pratt. The Cougars trailed most the contest at the Beaver Dome and struggled from the free throw line nearly the entire night before turning things around in the game's final minutes to earn the win. The win over Pratt not only avenged an earlier season loss at home for the Cougars, it kept Barton in 2nd place in the Jayhawk West at 6-3. The Cougars are now 16-7 overall. That is the highest win total for the Cougars since a 21-win effort in 2000-01. Pratt fell to 3-6 in the West with the loss and 16-7 overall.

Highlights
Barton led on several occasions in the opening 8 minutes of the game leading by as many as 4 at 9-5 and 11-7. The Cougars lost that lead at the 11:34 mark of the opening half and would not see it again until less than 3 minutes remained in the contest. Pratt pushed the lead to as many as 10 points in the opening half at 37-27 before the Cougars cut it to 37-30 at the intermission.

In the 2nd half Pratt stayed in control most of the way. The lead for the Beavers bounced between 4 and 9 points for the opening 10 minutes of action before Barton cut it to 55-52 at the 10:40 mark on a putback from Sunshine Uli. Pratt pushed the lead back to 9 points at 63-54 with 7:25 to play and still led 65-58 with 6:51 left in the contest when Tina Wilson scored on an assist from Lauren Williams. That layup would signify the final points for Pratt until there were just 17 seconds left in the game. By that time Barton had claimed a 7 point lead with a 14-0 run. It wasn't a quick run, but nonetheless a productive one.

Each of Barton's baskets came nearly 1 minute apart as the Cougars chipped the lead away and finally overtook Pratt at 66-65 with 2:50 left on a Mayowa Onikute layup after the Cougars grabbed an offensive rebound following an Uli missed free throw. At that point the Cougars were a miserable 7-of-20 at the charity stripe. Another Onikute offensive board and putback gave the Cougars a 68-65 advantage with 1:59 to play. After Uli missed the front end of a 1-and-1 to put Barton down to 7-of-21 for 33 percent at the charity stripe, the Cougars finally began to hit free throws.

Brandi Harris righted the ship by hitting a pair of free throws with 41 seconds left for a 70-65 lead. After Onikute missed two free throws Harris made two more for a 72-65 lead with just 20 seconds left. Pratt finally broke its scoring drought of more than 6:30 when Ashley Law drained a 3-pointer with 17 seconds left but it was too little, too late. Victoria Carlile knocked down a pair of free throws for the final margin with 12 seconds to play.

Onikute scored a career-high 20 points in the win to pace Barton. Onikute added 5 rebounds and 4 assists from her point guard spot. Uli had her 2nd double-double of the season (both in the past 3 games) as she scored 15 points and grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds. The 15 points was the 2nd highest total for Uli as a Cougar and the highest since the 2nd weekend of the season when she scored 17 against the Bethany JV. The Cougars made up for a 13-of-29 free throw shooting night by dominating the boards. Barton out-rebounded Pratt by a whopping 31 boards, more than doubling their foes for a 61-30 advantage on the boards.

Wilson led Pratt with a game-high 27 points, thanks in part to a 10-for-10 effort at the charity stripe. Williams turned in perhaps the best game of anyone during the night by recording a triple double with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists from her point guard spot. Viola Beybeyah added 14.

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

Next
Wed., Feb. 9 – v Garden City, 5:30 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton County Gym)