Lady Cougars drop fifth straight, falter late to Garden City
The mystery of the Barton Community College women’s basketball team continued Saturday night at the Barton Gym as the Lady Cougars again proved they can play amongst the best in the Jayhawk West. Conversely for the Lady Cougars the result was their fifth straight loss in falling 66-61 to Garden City Community College. Dropping to 2-9 in conference play, Barton is now at .500 for the season at 12-12 while Garden City, who was fresh off Wednesday’s victory over the nation’s top ranked team, improves to 8-3 in conference and 22-3 overall. Barton will play its third game in five days when the travel to El Dorado on Monday to take on Butler Community College. Game time is set for 5:30 p.m. at the Power Plant.
With twelve lead changes and ten ties, Barton led the Lady Broncbusters in the second half before a 6-0 Garden City run swung the game with thirteen minutes remaining. Garden stretched the lead to eight only to have the Lady Cougars respond, getting the deficit to three numerous times including with fifty-two seconds remaining. As been the case in the course of the five game losing streak, opportunities have slipped through the Lady Cougars hands as Barton missed shots from the field and opportunities at the free throw line.
Blair Bloomfield's sixteen points led the Lady Cougars as it was her fifth double digit scoring output in the last six games. Freshman Kailai Brantner continued her strong play of late scoring thirteen points and seven rebounds while leading the Lady Cougars with three assists. Erin Copeland increased her double-digit scoring streak to nine games as she scored eleven points. Despite not scoring in the contest, Ta'Kerra Williams led Barton in rebounding with eight.
Tahlia Pope led four Lady Broncbusters in double digit scoring with twenty-one points. Deni Jacobs scored thirteen while Allegria Chisom scored ten. Tamara Jones, who also scored ten points, recorded a double-double by grabbing twelve rebounds to go along with five blocks.