Cougars clip another ranked foe in West play
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team just keeps whittling down the field of one loss teams in the Jayhawk West. For the 3rd time in 4 games, the Cougars handed a team its 2nd loss in West play with a 74-57 win over No. 17 Dodge City at the Barton County Gym Wednesday night. It was also the 2nd straight game the Cougars knocked off the No. 17 ranked team as Barton turned the trick against last week's No. 17 team Hutchinson Saturday on the road. The win moves Barton to 5-1 in the West and 15-5 overall. Dodge City is now 17-3 overall and 4-2 in the West. Seward and Barton are now the only 1-loss team left in the West.
Highlights
Barton got off to a quick start in the contest and never trailed. The Cougars jumped to an 8-2 lead on the Conquistadors in the game's opening 5 minutes and kept the pressure on all night long. Barton's biggest lead of the opening half was a 14 points on a couple of occasions before they let the Conquistadors cut the lead to just 6 at half, 30-24.
The Cougars didn't panic, though, starting the 2nd half with a 7-0 run to push the Cougars lead back to 13 points at 37-24. Once again, though, the Conquistadors would have a run in them. Dodge City managed to cut the Barton led to 47-41 with 9:10 to play as the Cougars scored just 10 points during an 8 minute stretch.
But much like the start of the 2nd half, Barton had an answer. Carly Bloomfield hit two free throws and Vivian Ewalefo knocked down a 3-pointer as the Cougars ran off 5 straight to push the score to 52-41 with 8:16 to play. The Conquistadors cut the lead to 6 once more – 63-57 with 1:25 left – but Barton put the game in the final minute, finishing with a 9-0 run.
The defense of the Cougars was once again a bright spot in the win as Dodge City entered the game averaging more than 86 points a contest but were held to just 57 – the lowest output of the season for Dodge, which hit just 39 percent of its shots and committed 28 turnovers.
Barton was led by Ewalefo and Brianna Buchanan with 15 points each while Brittany Ridley and Victoria Carlile each added 12. The Cougars hit 22-of-28 free throws in the contest, led by Ewalefo's 9-of-10 effort.
Stats
Full box scores and stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Sat., Jan. 29 – at Cloud County, 6 pm (Jayhawk West contest at Concordia)