Barton stays atop West with big road win at Colby; runs winning streak to 14
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team had a big task on its hands Wednesday night, traveling to Jayhawk West favorite Colby for a battle of Top 25 teams. In addition, Barton was without the services of point guard Maya Onikute, who is lost for at least 4 weeks after suffering a concussion in the last game. Barton responded by picking up its game another notch as the No. 10 ranked Cougars held off the Trojans for a 64-61 win. The Cougars also played without guard Brandi Harris, who was serving a suspension and will return to action in Barton's next outing. Barton is off for a week before a pair of home games next week with Butler and Hutchinson.
Highlights
Colby started the game like deer running wild through open country. The Trojans ran up and down the court, grabbing a 9-3 lead on 9 fast break points. The Trojans made it 11 straight fast break points to start the game with an 11-5 lead just 4:30 into the contest. That is when the Barton trees went up in that forest.
After the quick start, Barton's defense slowed down that Colby break. With a quick 7-0 run, Barton put themselves in the lead 12-11, capped off with a go-ahead three pointer from Victoria Carlile. At the 6:54 mark of the first half, Barton opened up their biggest lead of the night, 27-17. Colby would come back to make the contest close, pulling within one point with a little over a minute to go. The Cougars did not relinquish the lead in the first half, going into intermission with a 34-30 lead. The Trojans didn't go away in the second half, staying within close reach of the lead. It looked as if the Cougars would pull away, opening up another 10 point lead halfway through the second period by the score of 47-37. Colby came back to cut the Barton lead down to 3 several times in the final minutes. A jumper good from KG Hellen stretched the Barton lead out to 5 with 23 seconds remaining, sealing the deal for the Cougars. The Trojans outscored the Cougars 31-30 in the final period, but Barton was able to stop Colby's running game, earning them the victory by the final score of 64-61.
Carlile came in off the bench to pace Barton County with 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor, including 4 three pointers in 23 minutes of play. Hellen poured in 14 points of her own, joining Carlile as the only Cougars to reach double figures. Andrea Barber lead Barton with 12 rebounds and 6 assists, along her 6 points. Sophomore Sunshine Misa-Uli scored 8 points on 3-of-6 shooting from the field and pulled down 8 rebounds. As a team, Barton hit 44 percent from the field, along with 30 percent from three point range.
Colby shot 33 percent from the field, but kept the game close with 80 percent free throwing shooting, going 8-10, while the Cougars only shot 46 percent from the line. The Trojans also out-rebounded Barton by a tally of 47 to 42.
Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Wed, Jan. 18 – v Butler County, 6 pm (Jayhawk West play at the Barton County Gym)