Barton holds off Allen County; headed to semifinals in Region VI
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team is back in a familiar place – sort of. Barton is back in the semifinals of the Region VI tournament after holding off Allen County, 65-59 Saturday, but it is different than last year. The venue has changed and did the roll of the Cougars in the quarterfinal game. Last season in Salina as Barton was making its way to the Region VI Championship game, the Cougars did it as an underdog. This time, on the floor of Koch Arena in Wichita, Barton was the favorite, and found itself fending off an underdog in Allen County. Barton was able to do just that after watching a double digit lead dwindle to 1 in the latter stages of the contest. The win gives the Cougars (27-5) a date in the semis with East Champion Labette, who rallied to defeat Seward in quarterfinal action. The game will be at 1 pm Monday.

Highlights
The Cougars seemed to be in control of the contest in opening half, building a double digit lead by halftime at 39-28. In that opening half, Barton forced 20 Allen County turnovers and outscored Allen 21-0 on points off turnovers – a category that has been very important to the Cougars success this season. That allowed Barton to put up 45 shots in the half to just 20 for the Red Devils. But Allen hit 10 of those 20 shots to stay in the game.

In the 2nd half, it turned into a matter of survival for Barton. After keeping the lead around 10 points for the opening stages of the half, Barton found itself leading 55-44 with just more than 10 minutes to play. But a 3-pointer by Victoria Carlile to give them that 11-point lead with 10:42 would be the last points Barton would score for a 4 1/2 minute stretch as Allen whittled that lead to 55-53 with just more than 6 minutes to play.

Maya Onikute hit another 3-pointer for Barton to give the Cougars a 58-53 lead with 6:05 to play. That would be short reprieve as Allen answered with 4 straight to make it 58-57 with 4:43 left. Sunshine Uli scored to give Barton a 60-57 then it became a free throw shooting contest for the Cougars. Barton didn't perform very well in that contest, hitting just 5-of-10 free throws in that final 4 minutes, but it was enough to send them to the semifinals.

Onikute scored a season-high 20 points to lead the Cougars. Brianna Buchanan scored 11 for Barton as well. Uli scored just those 2 late points but led Barton with 9 rebounds. Sharece Love, playing in her hometown, added 8 rebounds while Buchanan had 7. Allen turned the ball over just 5 times in the 2nd half but the Cougars still ended with a big advantage in the points off turnovers category, 26-10.

Now Barton turns focus to Labette, who staged a big rally of its own to knock off defending Region VI Champion Seward. Labette trailed by 13 points in the 2nd half before rallying for the 62-60 win. Seward hit a basket late to possibly tie the game, but it came after the buzzer to move the Cardinals into the semifinals against Barton. Labette brings a 29-3 mark into the contest.

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

Next
Mon., March 13 – v Labette, 1 pm (Region VI quarterfinals at Koch Arena in Wichita)