Cougars pull off upset win in final regular season contest
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team pulled off an upset to end the regular season, defeating Dodge City 60-53 at the Barton County Gym in Great Bend. The win moved the Cougars to 4-12 in the West and 14-16 overall. Barton will travel to Coffeyville Tuesday to start Region VI action. Dodge City fell to 9-7 in the West and 23-7 overall. It was also a night that saw Akia Harmon post the 3rd highest rebound total in Barton County history.
Highlights
The Cougars took the lead late in the 1st half and never gave it up to the West's 4th seed, Dodge City. Barton County trailed by 3 before a 5-0 run to end the 1st half gave the Cougars a 28-26 lead at the intermission.
In the 2nd half, Barton pushed that lead to eight at 36-28 in the early stages of the 2nd half, following a jumper by Carly Bloomfield. That lead grew to 10 on another Bloomfield jumper to give Barton a 40-30 lead. Dodge City would cut the lead 5 at 42-37, but a 9-3 Barton run gave the Cougars a 51-40 lead with less than 4 minutes to play. The closest Dodge would get after that would be 6 points in the final 10 seconds of the contest.
The Cougars had one of their better shooting nights, hitting 42 percent from the floor. It was the best shooting outing since a win over Pratt and the 4th best of the conference season for Barton. Defensively, the Cougars were just as impressive, holding Dodge to 27 percent from the floor – the lowest percentage since a ShootOut win over Allen in December. Barton also dominated the boards, winning the battle 54-41.
Bloomfield paced all Barton with 20 points but it was the play of Harmon that stood out. The sophomore, playing in her final home game of her career, grabbed 20 rebounds in the contest to go along with 17 points. Harmon's total tied Wendy Okeson for the 3rd highest ever – 4 behind the school record held by Chris Garner (1979) and Beth Lebsack (1982). Natalie Arndt also had a double-double for the Cougars with 12 points and 10 rebounds. She once again flirted with that elusive triple double, but ended with 7 assists. Elena Diaz paced 3 Conquistadors in double figures with 20.
Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
March 2 – at Coffeyville, 7 pm (Region VI Playoff, 1st round at Coffeyville)