Cougars get big road win at Hutchinson

Cougars get big road win at Hutchinson
The Barton Community College women's basketball team re-established itself as a contender for the Jayhawk West title with a big road win Wednesday night at Hutchinson. The Cougars picked up a 67-65 win over Hutch at the Sports Arena for their 4th straight win since dropping back-to-back games to start the West season. The win improved Barton to 4-2 in the West and 14-6 overall while Hutch fell to 3-2 and 16-3. The lone losses for Barton came on the road to West leading Cloud and 2nd place Seward. The Cougars have worked their way back to 3rd and will return home Wednesday to take on Colby.

Highlights
Barton spent most of the opening half playing catch up to the Blue Dragons as Hutch established a lead 7 minutes into the contest it would hold the remainder of the Hutch and well into the 2nd half. Barton trailed by as many as 7 in the opening half of play before going to halftime down 37-33. Sophomore Kristine Silaraja kept Barton in the contest during the opening 20 minutes, hitting all four of her shots from the field – 2 3-pointers – and added a free throw for 11 points playing all 20 minutes.

Hutch continued to hold the lead until an 8-0 run by Barton finally put the Cougars back on top. Barton trailed 46-42 with 15:24 to play but held the Blue Dragons scoreless over the next 3 minutes while putting together the 8-0 run. Courtney Sturdivant started the run with a jumper and Silaraja tied the contest at 46-all with a pair of free throws at the 14-minute mark. Danielle Bird gave Barton its 1st lead since 13-12 in the opening half with a 3-pointer on Barton's next possession with 13:34 to play. Sturdivant added one free throw one the next possession to cap the 8-0 run and give Barton a 50-46 advantage with 13 minutes to play.

The teams traded the lead for the next several minutes with Barton taking the lead on 2 Silaraja free throws with 7:17 to play, breaking the game's 6th tie and giving Barton a 60-58 lead.  Hutch would not lead again. The game would be tied one more time at 61-all but Jordi James gave Barton the lead for good when she followed in a Brooke Conley missed 3-pointer off a steal by Sturdivant. Barton would only make 4-of-8 free throws in the final 4 minutes, but it was enough to hold off the Blue Dragons for the win.

Barton's full court pressure was a big reason for the turnaround in the final 20 minutes of play as the Cougars forced Hutch into 15 2nd half turnovers that resulted in 18 of Barton's 34 2nd half points. Hutch, while shooting a stellar 60 percent in the 2nd half, only got off 20 shots in the 2nd half – turning the ball over on nearly as many possessions as they got off shots. Silaraja led Barton with 22 hitting 10-of-12 free throws. She was followed by 15 from Sturdivant and 13 from Bird on 3-of-4 3-point shooting. James led Barton with 9 rebounds – 7 on the offensive end including the one that gave Barton the lead for good. Sturdivant added 4 assists and 4 steals while Conley also snagged 4 steals. The Cougars grabbed 23 offensive rebounds in the game converting them into 22 2nd chance points.

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

Next
Jan 28 – v Colby 6 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton Gym in Great Bend)