Cougars drop 2nd straight as Seward County rolls to win in Liberal
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team has come across the same struggles as last season – lose a game and follow it with another loss. It happened for the 1st time this season when Barton lost at Seward County – a place the Saints have now won 152 of 153 games – Wednesday night by an 86-66 score. The losses come on the heels of a 17-game winning streak for Barton. This mark the 6th time – 12 losses out of a total of 15 losses – Barton has dropped back-to-back games the past two seasons. Five times last year Barton followed a loss with another, totaling 10 of the 12 losses. The 12th loss didn't have another game that followed as Barton lost in the Region VI title game to Seward. Barton has never dropped 3 straight in Coach Lane Lord's tenure. The Cougars will put that to the test Saturday when Pratt visits for Homecoming. With the loss at Liberal, Barton is now 19-3 overall and 6-2 in the West. Seward is also 19-3 overall and 5-3 in the West.

Highlights
Barton jumped out to an 8-2 lead on the Saints in the game's opening 5 minutes, but that would be the highlight reel for the Cougars. Seward answered with runs of 9-0, 7-0, 5-0, and 5-0 sandwiched around just 6 Barton points as the Saints bolted to a 28-14 lead. An 8-2 run Barton put the Cougars back in the contest though prior to intermission. When Andrea Barber scored a layup with 4 seconds to play, the Cougars had trimmed the lead to 31-25, this despite scoring just 6 points during a 10-minute stretch.

Unfortunately for Barton, it didn't take Seward long to re-establish itself in the 2nd half. The Saints opened the half with an 11-6 run to grab an 11-point lead just 5 minutes into the half. Barton would spend the next 5 minute fighting to stay in the game. The Cougars would trim the lead to 5 or 6 only too see Seward push it to 8 or 9. Barton was still very much in the game with KG Hellen knocked down a jumper with 10:47 to play to make it 52-47. But Seward road Brio Rode to a 17-2 run to give the Saints a 69-49 lead. Rode drilled 3 treys in the run and added 4-for-4 effort at the free throw line for 13 points. Rode also grabbed a steal that led to Seward's final bucket in the run to give the Saints their 1st 20-point lead of the night. That lead grew to as high as 25.

Barton was beaten at its own game for the 2nd straight time. The Cougars usually dominated the points off turnovers category but Seward County won that battle Wednesday by a wide margin, 30-15. Buchanan led 3 Barton players in double figures with 13 points, followed by Hellen and Stephanie N'Garsanet with 12 and 10. Sunshine Uli and Sharece Love each grabbed 10 rebounds. Rode ended the game with 29 for Seward, hitting 5-of-9 3-pointers. The Saints shot 51 percent from the floor, just the 2nd time an opponent has gone over 50 percent on Barton. The other was the loss to Cloud in the last outing.

Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Sat., Feb. 4 – v Pratt, 6 pm (Jayhawk West play at the Barton County Gym)

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Check out Barton County Basketball Online at www.bartonccc.edu/sports