Shot rims out at buzzer as Lady Cougars drop heartbreaker to Seward
Saturday night at the Barton Gym the Barton Community College women’s basketball team nearly pulled out the last second victory but dropped a hard fought 65-63 conference battle to Seward County Community College. The loss is the third straight for the Lady Cougars in dropping them to 2-7 in conference and 12-10 on the season while Seward improves to 6-3 and 15-7 overall. Barton will look to break the skid on Wednesday as the Lady Cougars travel to Dodge City to take on the Lady Conquistadors in a 6:00 p.m. tip at the United Wireless Arena. Barton defeated Dodge City earlier in the season at the Barton Gym 69-52.
In a back and forth first half exchanging leads four times, the Lady Cougars built a seven point lead with 8:16 getting a spark off the bench from freshman Taylor Mayes. Scoring four points in a Barton 6-0 run, Mayes finished the half leading all scorers with ten points.
Seward battled back via the three-point shots as the Lady Saints' Bridget Crandall knocked down back-to-back treys to give Seward its first lead with 4:33 to play. The teams went toe-to-toe for the last four minutes featuring four lead changes and three ties until a Blair Bloomfield trey with forty-eight seconds left gave Barton a narrow 30-29 halftime advantage.
The second half was much like the first as the teams were tied five times and had seven lead changes. Tied for the ninth time at 49 with 10:29 to play, a Ricquia Jones trey triggered a 9-0 Seward run to open up the game's biggest lead with 8:45 remaining.
Back came the Cougars as Erin Copeland's shot from behind the arc drew Barton to within one at 59-60 with 4:32 left. A 4-0 run by Seward pushed the lead back to five but a Bloomfield trey and Kailai Brantner free throw brought the Cougars back to within one.
In a wild last 1:24, the Cougars missed four free throws down the stretch but Seward converted only one-of-three giving Barton multiple opportunities to seize the lead. After Jones made one-of-two free throws with eleven seconds, Copeland pushed the ball up to the floor finding Kelsey Keith on the right baseline. Keith's dribble drive missed off the front iron and Bloomfiled's follow attempt was blocked out of bounds by a couple of Lady Saints' with one second remaining. After a Seward timeout, Keith's inbounds pass found Copeland coming off a triple screen on the left side. The sophomore from Kansas City got a good look from behind the arc but the ball caromed around and out of the cylinder and Seward escaped with the 65-63 win.
Bloomfield's thirteen points and ten rebounds, her second double-double of the season, led a balanced Barton attack as five Lady Cougars scored in double-digits. Ashton Bruner and Taschell Phillips each scored twelve while Copeland and Mayes each put up ten.
Jones led three Lady Saints in double figures with sixteen on 6-of-10 from the floor, including 3-of-6 from behind the arc. Madison McLain scored thirteen while also leading Seward in rebounds with six. Avery Burns put up ten points, nine coming from behind the arc, as she and teammate Bridget Crandall were 6-of-7 from long distance. Crandall's 3-of-3 performance was pivotal as she played only five minutes but connected at key times for the Lady Saints.