Barton's 17-game winning streak ended by Cloud County
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team had a chance to put a little more space between themselves and one of the other main contenders for the Jayhawk West title Saturday night at the Barton County Gym. But in the match-up of two ranked teams, Barton County saw its 17-game winning streak come to an end on its home floor as No. 19 Cloud County scored an 86-74 win over the No. 8 ranked Cougars. The loss puts Barton in a 3-way tie at the top of the conference with a 6-1 record in West play. Barton is 19-2 overall. Cloud County has those same 6-1 and 19-2 records while No. 15 Colby is also 6-1 in the West. Barton will try to remain a 1-loss West team Wednesday in a place they have not win at in 14 years when they travel to Liberal to take on Seward County. Seward is 4-3 in the West this season.
Highlights
The opening half of basketball saw 8 ties and 11 lead changes in the see-saw affair. But Cloud put together a 7-1 run in the final two minutes of play to take a 41-35 lead with just a few seconds left in the half. Brianna Buchanan hit two free throws for Barton with no time left on the 1st half clock to trim that lead to 41-37 but Barton would not lead again the rest of the night.
The Cougars did trim it to 41-39 to start the 2nd half and trailed just 43-42 just a couple minutes into the half. But Barton could never overtake the Thunderbirds. Cloud pushed the lead to 12 points at 54-42 following an 11-0 run and Barton would play catch-up the rest of the night. Barton still trailed by 12 at 62-50 before putting together a rally. Cloud could only muster 1 field goal and 4 free throws during a 4-minute stretch of play while the Cougars press started working. Barton forced 3 turnovers by the Thunderbirds that resulted in 6 points during the 16-6 run to make it a 2-point game at 68-66 with still 5:30 to play. Following another turnover by Cloud, Barton had a chance to tie the score but couldn't convert.
Barton would not have another chance to tie the score the rest of the game. The Cougars had 3 possessions to cut into a 74-70 lead, but failed to cash in. After that, Barton would score just 4 more points as Cloud pulled away in the final minutes for the double-digit win.
Sunshine Misa-Uli led the Cougars with 18 points to go along with 10 rebounds for her 8th career double-double. She was joined in double figure scoring by Stephanie N'Garsanet with 13, KG Hellen with 11 and Andrea Barber with 10. Brianna Buchanan had a career-high 7 assists in the contest to lead Barton. Stanecia Graham was nearly stoppable on the night for Cloud County. The 6-2 freshman scored 31 points in the game, including an 11-for-16 effort at the free throw line. Kina Miller added 18 and Kelsey Nelson 15 for the Thunderbirds.
Barton will be back on the road Wednesday to take on Seward County in Liberal, where the Saints have won 14 straight over the Cougars.
Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Wed., Feb. 1 – at Seward County, 6 pm (Jayhawk West play at the Greenhouse in Liberal)