Chances escape Barton Women, sends Lady Cougars to the road for first round of Region VI

The Barton Community College women's basketball team had its chances Wednesday night at the Barton Gym but fell in overtime to Garden City Community College 66-65.  Barton finishes the regular season 7-7 in conference play and 18-12 overall while Garden City improved to 8-6 in the Jayhawk and 16-13 overall.  A win by Barton would have secured the fourth seed and first round home playoff game but instead the Lady Cougars will take the sixth seed into the Region VI Tournament and a trip to Arkansas City to play the third seeded Cowley College Tigers on Saturday.  The 22-8 Tigers, who lost their last regular season game at Independence Community College 76-60, finished third in the Jayhawk East at 8-6.  Game time at the William S. Scott Gym is set for 5:30 p.m.

Garden City jumped out to an 8-0 lead before the Lady Cougars clawed back to take a 16-15 lead five minutes later.  Brandy Winbush, who had her streak snapped last Saturday of six straight games with at least two three-pointers, knocked down back-to-back treys in the first half in a matter of forty seconds turning a two-point deficit into a four point Barton lead late in the half.  After the initial eight point deficit, Barton would outscore the Broncbusters by eleven the rest of the half to lead 35-32 at the halftime intermission.  The Lady Cougars built the lead with solid play throughout the lineup as eight players contributed at least two points.  Cheyenne Hedrington led the way with eight points and five rebounds while Mariana Lambert came off the bench to add six points and five rebounds.

The Lady Cougars built the lead out to five twice settling for 46-42 lead at the 9:31 media timeout.  A 9-0 run by Garden City in a little over three minutes set the Lady Cougars back but responded with back-to-back buckets to cut it to 50-51 with 5:13 left.

After Garden City built the lead back out to five, two Phikala Anthony jumpers and a pair of Ashton Bruner free throws tied the game at 55 with 2:48 to play.  Neither team was able to score another field goal the rest of regulation as Garden City went 2-4 from the charity stripe, including missing the front end of two one-and-one opportunities in the last fifty seconds.  Barton also went 2-4 from the line but had the opportunity to put itself in position to win with twelve seconds remaining but Anthony made only one of her two free throws.   Garden City's Shauqunna Collins had a decent look at the buzzer but her three-point attempt was well wide of its mark sending the game to overtime.

Lambert gave Barton the early four point lead in the extra frame knocking down back-to-back shots.  Garden City responded with a 6-0 run to take the lead but again Anthony had the opportunity to put the Cougars back ahead with forty-seven seconds to play. Making the first free throw but missing the second, the Broncbusters' Loysha Morris broke the tie hitting a fifteen foot uncontested jumper from the elbow with twenty-one seconds remaining. 

Following a Barton thirty-second timeout, Anthony's left baseline jumper rimmed out into the hands of Garden City's Zantaya Davis.  Davis nailed both free throws to give the Broncbusters what seemed to be an insurmountable lead with eight seconds remaining.  With 1.7 seconds on the clock, Garden City's Collins was called for a foul sending Winbush to the line for two free throws.  The sophomore drained the first prompting a Garden City timeout.  Needing to intentionally miss the free throw, Winbush banged it off the front iron and Taylor Mayes secured the rebound.  With the opportunity to kick out to an open Lambert on the outside perimeter, Mayes instinctively immediately scored as the clock sounded for the final 66-65 score.

Phikala Anthony led three Lady Cougars in double digit scoring with thirteen points.  For the sophomores playing their last game at the Barton Gym, Taylor Mayes led the way with her second collegiate double-double scoring eleven points and ten rebounds while Mariana Lambert scored ten and grabbed eight rebounds.  Cheyenne Hedrington, who leads Barton in scoring, finished seven points below her average at eight points but grabbed a team high twelve rebounds.  Hedrington also tied fellow sophomore Ashton Bruner with the team lead in assists with four with Bruner leading the team with four steals.

Zantaya Davis's double-double performance led three Garden City players in double digits scoring seventeen points and grabbing twelve rebounds.  Loysha Morris scored twelve points while dishing out a team high five assists and six steals.  Loysha Collins contributed ten points.