Cougar women drop tough contest to No. 7 Colby, 48-46

Cougar women drop tough contest to No. 7 Colby, 48-46
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team led the No. 7 ranked team in the NJCAA for most of the night. But in the end it was Colby that made the plays late in the tight contest, handing the Cougars a tough setback, 48-46, Wednesday night at the Barton County Gym. Colby led for exactly 1:42 of the 40 minute contest against the Cougars, but the Trojans led when it counted, taking the lead with just 7 seconds to play to all but secure the Jayhawk West title. Barton sits in 3rd in the West with a 7-4 mark. The Cougars are 20-5 overall. Colby is now 11-1 in the West and must lose 2 of its final 4 games to miss out on the West title. The Trojans are 23-3 overall this season. Barton will now play 3 straight road games as the Cougars look to hold onto that 3rd spot in the West. That trek will begin in Hutchinson Saturday night when the Cougars take on the Blue Dragons at 6 pm.

Highlights
The Cougars jumped to an early lead and held that lead nearly the entire basketball game. Barton led 7-2 in the game's 1st 2 1/2 minutes following a 3-pointer by Andrea Barber. Barton led by 2-6 points most of the half, pushing that led to 9 late in the 1st half before heading to halftime on top of the Trojans by a 30-22 score. During the half Barton hit 40 percent from the floor while holding the normally accurate to just 9-of-24 from the floor.

Colby would hit a similar amount of field goals in the 2nd half – 9-of-26 – but 3-point shooting by the Trojans and poor shooting by the Cougars would allowed Colby to stay in the game long enough to make the needed plays down the stretch and win the game. The Cougars jumped to a 10-point lead to start the 2nd half on a Sunshine Uli layup for a 32-22 lead. But 4 Colby 3-pointers over the next 10 minutes of play – half of them in transition – gave the Trojans their 1st lead of the game with 8:57 to play in the game.

It started when Shareka Purnell cut Barton's 10-point lead to 7 with a 3-pointer following Uli's basket. Rita Kollo cut the lead to 36-34 with 13:20 on a trey from the top of the key. Then it was the West's top 3-point shooter who took the Trojans to the lead. Suzana Sormaz buried her 3rd 3-pointer of the game in transition with 10:15 to play to even the score at 39-all. It was the 1st tie since 2-all. Sormaz gave Colby its 1st lead of the game moments later on another 3 in transition for a 42-41 advantage with 8:57 to play.

The lead was short-lived as Barton recaptured the lead less than one minute later. Barton didn't trail again until the 1:45 mark when Colby grabbed another 1-point at 45-44. The Cougars retook the lead on when Andrea Barber found a streaking Victoria Carlile for a layup in transition to give Barton a 46-45 lead with just 25 seconds to play. But 3 timeouts later, Colby's Kollo gave the Trojans the lead with a short shot in the lane with just 7 seconds to play, 47-46. Colby added a free throw after a Cougar turnover for the final 2 point margin.

Carlile led the Cougars with 15 points – the only Barton player in double figures. Uli had 9 rebounds on the game. Kollo had 16 and Sormaz 15 for the Trojans.

Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Sat., Feb. 18 – at Hutchinson, 6 pm (Jayhawk West play at the Sports Arena)