Barton comes up short in upset bid at Cloud; lose at Seward

Barton comes up short in upset bid at Cloud; lose at Seward
The Barton Community College women's basketball team nearly pulled off the upset Monday night in Concordia before losing to Cloud County in close contest. The Cougars lost 55-48 to the 21-2 Thunderbirds in Bryant Gymnasium. Things weren't quite as close for Barton two days later with another long road to trip to a 22-2 team, falling to Seward 87-63. Barton is now 11-12 overall this year and 4-6 in the Jayhawk West. The Cougars will look to get back to the winning track Saturday when Dodge City visits the Barton Gym for a 6 pm tip.

Highlights
The Cougars battled with the 21st ranked Thunderbirds the entire night Monday. Much of the night was spent with Cloud building a 7-8 point lead and Barton battling back to cut it 1, tie or even take a brief lead.

Barton's last lead in the game was at 32-30 early in the 2nd half. Cloud looked as if they had finally wrestled control from Barton when the Thunderbirds matched their biggest lead of the game at 44-35 with 9:22 to play in the contest. But, again, Barton fought back. Following a Cloud missed 3-pointer that would have pushed the lead to 12, Barton's Abbey McKenzie scored a layup from Hannah Rotolo to cut it 7 and start a 9-2 run. Annie Kassongo added a jumper, Rotolo a 3-pointer and Raven Ward a jumper to make it 46-44 with 5:24 to play.

Barton got the lead down to a single point with 2:26 after a driving layup by Tynisha McDowell to cut the lead to 49-48. The Cougars actually had a chance to take the led the next trip down the floor but couldn't convert and Cloud scored the game's final 6 points for the 55-48 win.

Kassongo finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds for another double-double. Ward added 10 points in the defensive contest. Barton hit just 29 percent from the field and committed 23 turnovers. Cloud didn't fare much better, hitting 30 percent from the floor and turning the ball over 17 times. Ivory Russell had a big night for Cloud scoring 13 points and grabbing 16 rebounds. Arika Ullman led the T-Birds with 15 points.

Wednesday night's game took a bad turn early for the Cougars and it was uphill from there. After the Cougars tied the game at 9-all with a Rotolo jumper at the 15:42 mark the Cougars would not score for the next 7 minutes. And during those 7 minutes, Seward scored in bunches. The Saints shot to an 18-0 run during that time to take a 27-9 lead. Barton missed 6 shots and turned the ball over 6 times in those 7 minutes – 3 of those turnovers resulting in layups for the Saints. Seward cruised from there, leading by as many as 34 in the 2nd half.

Four Cougars found double figures led by Kassongo with 17 and Ward with 16. Rotolo finished with 11 and Alisha Fanshier with 10. Kassongo also grabbed 10 rebounds for her 14th double-double this year and her 7th in 10 West games. Vaneza Junior scored 27 for the Saints to lead all scorers.

Barton will return home for a date with Dodge City, looking to get back on the winning track. Barton beat Dodge at the Civic Center earlier year in Dodge, 67-60. Dodge is 1-9 in West play this year and 3-21 overall.

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

Next
Feb 6 – v Dodge 6 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton Gym in Great Bend)

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