Cougars rebound with win over Butler; Cloud next on Saturday
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team stopped a 2-game losing streak for the 4th time this season at 2. Barton, which has lost only 9 games this season, has dropped 8 of those in 4 2-game losing skids. All of those have ended at 2. The latest was no different as the Cougars rolled to a 74-63 win over Butler County Wednesday night at the Barton County Gym. The win kept the Cougars in contention for a home playoff contest as Barton moved to 8-5 in the West and 18-9 overall. Butler falls to 12-15 and 3-10. Cloud County closes out the home portion of the regular season for Barton Saturday when the Thunderbirds visit the Barton County Gym.
Highlights
The Cougars bolted to a 14-0 lead and pushed it to 28-8 midway through the opening half of action as the Cougars came out on fire. Barton used a pressing defense and uptempo offense to take a 41-27 lead to intermission. The Cougars connected on 15-of-29 shots in the opening half for a blistering 52 percent.
During those same 20 minutes, Barton forced 15 Butler turnovers that resulted in 20 Cougar points off those turnovers. The only downside of the half was Barton had 12 turnovers of its own that kept Butler in the contest.
During the second half, Barton jumped out an a 6-0 run to push the lead to 47-27 but a 12-2 run by Butler cut the lead to 49-37. Barton kept that lead around the 10-16 point mark for most of the half with the biggest lead coming at 64-43. Butler never got closer than 11 in the half.
The Cougars hit a season-best 53 percent from the field, knocking down 31-of-59 shots from the floor. That is the 1st time this season the Cougars have hit better than 50 percent from the field. Sunshine Uli scored a career-high 20 points to pace the Cougars and grabbed a team-high 8 rebounds as well. Brandi Harris and Sharece Love each scored 10 for the Cougars. Brittany Ridley dished out 6 assists to lead Barton. Charressa Gray scored 17 in a losing effort for Butler.
Stats
Full box scores and stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Sat., Feb. 26 – v Cloud, 5:30 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton County Gym)