Cougars lose on free throws with 0.7 seconds at Seward
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team had a tough loss to swallow Saturday night at the Green House in Liberal. Barton traded the lead with Seward throughout the night, eventually losing with 0.7 seconds to play on two Saint free throws, 68-67. It was the 2nd straight loss for the Cougars, who had started the season off 16-0. Barton, ranked No. 3, led by 3 with just 20 seconds to play but the Saints scored 6 points in the final 20 seconds to earn the win. Barton is now 2-2 in the West and 16-2 overall. Seward is 2-1 in the West and 11-6 overall. Barton will be home Wednesday as the Cougars host Garden City in a 6 pm tip.
Highlights
It was a see-saw contest all night as the two teams traded the lead 18 times in the contest – 13 of them in the 2nd half. In addition there were 6 ties in the game with Barton's biggest lead being 6 and Seward's biggest lead just 4. No team held the lead for more than 6 consecutive minutes in the game.
The Cougars held the lead late in the contest, taking a 58-57 lead with 4:40 to play on an Ipek Turkyilmaz layup and when Turkyilmaz followed two possessions later with a trey, Barton led 61-57 with 4:30 to play. The Cougars led by 3 points following a pair of Kristine Silaraja free throws with 1:18 to play and still held that 65-62 lead in the final 30 seconds.
That is when All-American Tegan Cunningham closed the deal for the Saints. She followed her own miss with a rebound basket and foul with 19 seconds left to make it 65-64. She missed the free throw but collected her own rebound yet again and scored to give Seward a 66-65 lead with 16 seconds to play. Following a Barton timeout, Silaraja knocked down a jumper to give the Cougars the lead back at 67-66 with 6.3 seconds to play. Cunningham then got the inbounds pass, dribbled down the floor and was fouled 20 feet from the basket as she tried to dribble through a pair of Barton defenders. The foul was whistled with 0.7 seconds to play. She hit both free throws to give the Saints the win.
Cunningham had a huge 2nd half for the Saints scoring 23 of her game-high 27 points in the final 20 minutes. Courtney Sturdivant led Barton with 20 points, followed by Inga Muciniece with 18 points and 15 rebounds – some of her best numbers of the season. Turkyilmaz added 14 points.
Barton will try to get back to its winning ways Wednesday as the Cougars play at home for just the 2nd time since November. Barton will host Garden City in a 6 pm tip at the Barton Gym. Garden is 2-2 in the West and 6-11 overall this year.
Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Wed Jan 15 – v Garden City, 8 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton Gym in Great Bend)