The Barton Community College women's basketball team ran across an angry Hutchinson Community College Saturday night at the Sports Arena as the No. 14 Blue Dragons controlled the final thirty minutes winning 81-59. The victory snapped a two-game losing streak for Hutchinson while sending Barton into the playoffs on a three game slide. Barton ends the regular season at 6-13 in conference play and 14-16 on the season as Hutchinson controls its destiny for the conference title in Monday's final regular season game entering at 15-3 in Jayhawk play and 25-3 overall. Next up for Barton will be a road trip to a destination and opponent yet to be named in the first round of the Region VI playoffs. Announcement of the playoff assignment coming Tuesday following the conclusion of Monday night's final regular season games.
Kilee Harris and Regan Unruh each knocked down three treys on the night as the duo stroked a couple early giving the Lady Cougars a lead before the Blue Dragons took over. Hutchinson grew its five point first quarter lead to eleven at the halftime break holding Barton to only seven points taking a 33-22 lead to the locker room. The Blue Dragons carried the momentum back out to the court exploding for thirty-four third quarter points increasing the lead to twenty-three headed to the final quarter.
Harris finished 3-of-5 from beyond the arc and sunk 6-of-8 from the charity stripe to finish with fifteen while leading with five rebounds. Unruh buried three of her four long range shots and was a perfect 4-of-4 from the line scoring thirteen. Dominique Baker's 5-of-6 from the stripe led to a twelve point performance while leading the team with a career high nine steals and tying Alexus Bryson for assist honors with two each.
Kirea Rogers, who scored nineteen in the team's first meeting, put up a monster twenty point sixteen rebound performance. The outside duo of Taylor Stahly and Lakin Preisner knocked down 5-of-10 beyond the arc scoring seventeen and fifteen points respectively while Mandy Madden added thirteen. Inja Butina led Hutchinson in assists with seven as the freshman inched to within six of breaking the Blue Dragon single season record.