Lady Cougar comeback falls short in conference opener at Independence #GoBarton

The Barton Community College women's basketball team saw its comeback bid fall short 81-72 in Wednesday evening's conference opener at Independence Community College.

The result hands Barton its first loss of the season dropping to 1-1 and 0-1 in conference play while Independence improves their unblemished record to 3-0 and 1-0 in conference play. The Lady Cougars will look to rebound on Saturday night in hosting Allen Community College in a 5:30 p.m. tip.

Barton recovered from an early six-point deficit countering on four trifectas from Vanessa Oduah, Rebecca Leveque, and a pair by Tiffany Dortland jumping out to their first lead at 14-11. The teams seesawed the lead the remaining 5:04 of the opening stanza as Independence would end up carrying a 22-20 advantage into the second quarter.

The Cougars seized the first four points of the second frame outscoring the Pirates 8-4 in the first four minutes led by Cora Anderson's six straight points pushing Barton to the lead by a pair. The lead would be short lived as Independence snagged the next five regaining the lead 34-31. A 4-0 Barton run powered by free throws from Marliah Johnson, Oduah, and Bryn Willt gave the Cougars one final lead at 35-34 with 2:31 to play in the second frame. A 7-1 run over the final 1:18 of the quarter gave the Pirates the advantage at the break 44-37.

A pivotal 16-6 run by the Pirates to open the third buried the Cougars in their deepest hole on the night, 60-43 with four minutes remaining. Dortland's fourth triple of the game followed by Queen Ulabo's first field goal of the contest trimmed the margin to 64-50 after the three.

Barton would make it interesting in the final frame opening the quarter on an 11-2 run trimming the margin to five at 66-61. Cutting the deficit to four on three separate occasions, turnovers and poor free throw shooting over the final minutes would prove to be costly as the Cougars. Barton would later trim the deficit to 73-71 following Brennan Kirchhoff's lone bucket of the night but Independence would close out the game on an 8-1 run over the ninety seconds handing Barton its' third straight loss at the ICC Fieldhouse.

Dortland led all scorers with sixteen points on the night with Ulabo finishing with thirteen, all coming in the final twenty minutes, rounding out the double-figure scoring totals for the Cougars. Leveque led the glass cleaners with a career high ten rebounds while Kirchoff dished out a game high four assists.

The Cougars shot 58.3% (21-of-36) from the free throw line while being outrebounded by ten.

Eriel West and Delani Harris led the Pirates with thirteen points each while Jasmine Elder and Lauri Cren adding ten points each off the bench. Rapaluchi Ngorka finished just shy of a double-double performance hauling down a team high ten rebounds to go along with nine points.

As per conference regulations, no fans will be allowed in attendance until at least February 5. The Barton Sports Network, the live streaming avenue of Barton Athletic events, will be streaming all home events. Audio and video coverage links can be located on the Barton women's basketball schedule page. Contests are available to view live via a fee or after the event as each game is archived for later viewing and/or downloading. Cost for home basketball games are $4.99 per game or $50.00 for a season pass. To create an account for viewing go to www.BartonSports.com/webstream or contact the Barton Sports Information Department at Athletics@bartonccc.edu or (620) 792-9310 for more information.