Cougars lose home tilt to Butler

Cougars lose home tilt to Butler
The Barton Community College women's basketball team saw its hold on 5th place in the West slip Saturday night at Butler came into the Barton Gym and left with a 76-73 victory. A Hannah Rotolo running 3-pointer just inside halfcourt barely missed at the buzzer to send the contest to overtime. With the loss the two teams will now battle for that 5th spot the rest of the season. Butler currently sits in 5th with a 5-7 mark while Barton is 1/2 game back at 5-8. The Cougars are 12-14 overall this season while the Grizzlies improve to 11-15. Barton will be on the road to square off with No. 12 Hutchinson Wednesday in the Sports Arena.

Highlights
Barton led early in the contest – by as many as 8 points – holding a 13-5 lead 7 minutes into the game. It was at that point the Cougar offense hit a turnover spree and Butler took advantage to the tune of a 15-0 run. In less than 4 minutes of play, Barton turned the ball over 8 times resulting in 13 of the 15 points in the run. In fact it was the 1st 13 points of the run as Barton was not able to get off a shot for 8 straight possessions and found themselves suddenly down 20-13 with just less than 9 minutes to play. The lead peaked at 11 for the Grizzlies but the Cougars were able to trim it down to just 2 points before going to halftime down 41-35.

Barton scored the opening 6 points of the 2nd half on 3-pointers form Rotolo and Alisha Fanshier but Butler responded with the game's next 6 points and a 47-41 lead. That would be the theme for the 2nd half as Barton would get close but couldn't fully overcome that big 1st half run. The Cougars had their chances in the final minute following another 3-pointer from Rotolo to trim the lead to 71-69 with 1:55 to play. Fanshier stole the ball from Garden with 1:23 to play and the Cougars had a chance to tie or take the lead but the Cougars 31st turnover of the game gave the ball back to Butler.

After a missed on the Butler end, Barton's Rotolo just missed hitting her 6th trey of the game 47 seconds left. The final seconds of the game saw the Cougars get one last shot.  Rotolo netted her career-high 19th point with a streaking layup following a pair of Butler free throws to make it 75-73 with 4 seconds left. An immediate foul sent Butler to the line where the Alysia Hart made her 1st and missed her 2nd. Annie Kassongo grabbed the rebound for Barton and fired a pass to Rotolo who dribbled just past halfcourt and tossed up a runner at the buzzer, which caromed off.

Kassongo led the Cougars with 21 points and 15 rebounds followed by Rotolo with 19. Alisha Fanshier added 14. Raven Ward ended with 7 assists to pace Barton. Hart led Butler with 23 followed by Abby Fawcett with 15 and Desirai Smith with 13. The Cougars turned the ball over 32 times to just 12 for the Grizzlies. A margin that was just too great for the Cougars to overcome. Barton had one of its best shooting nights of the season hitting 50 percent of its shots and out-rebounded the Grizzlies by a 45-31 margin. The Cougars even shot a whopping 56 percent on 10-of-18 3-pointers but could not overcome 33 points off turnovers scored by Butler.

Barton will face a tough challenge Wednesday with the trip to Hutchinson. The Blue Dragons still have an outside shot at the Jayhawk West crown one loss behind the league leading Seward County Saints. Seward is 12-1 in the West with Hutch standing 2nd at 10-2. Hutchinson is 23-3 overall this season.

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

Next
Feb 17 – at Hutch 5:30 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Power Sports Arena in Hutchinson)