The Barton Community College women's basketball team had their season come to an end in the Region VI quarterfinals Monday at Park City's Hartman Arena as the Lady Cougars succumbed to the pressure of No. 2 ranked Hutchinson Community College 63-44. Barton concludes the season 17-15 under first-year Head Coach Alan Clark while the 31-1 Blue Dragons advance to Tuesday's 1:00 p.m. semifinal round against Cowley College.
Despite holding Hutchinson to its lowest shooting percentage against Barton in the three meetings of the season at 40.7%, Barton also shot its lowest percentage in the series at 29.4% with twenty-one turnovers not helping as the Blue Dragons came up with thirteen steals. Barton also couldn't get to the line shooting just twelve charity throws to Hutchinson's twenty-one as both teams struggled from the stripe with Barton's 58.3% bettering the Blue Dragons' 47.6%.
Eight Lady Cougars scored points Monday night with Jalisa Jones' ten points leading the way with Katrina Roenfeldt one point shy scoring nine points while dishing out a team high four assists and Baylee Robinson leading the rebounding with nine.
Three Hutchinson players reached double digits as Kirea Rogers five steals led to a game high eighteen points to go along with seven rebounds. Knocking down 3-of-6 from behind the arc, Taylor Stahly finished with eleven while Bride Kennedy-Hopoat added eleven. Inja Butina fell two points shy of a double-double scoring eight points and dishing out ten assists.
The Blue Dragons' Lakin Preisner and Barton's Jones opened the game exchanging three-pointers before Hutchinson scored the next eleven building a 14-3 lead before Roenfeldt's three-pointer stopped the bleeding. The Lady Cougars would close the quarter on two Jones free throws before Lauren Welsch drained a trey in the waning seconds giving Barton a little momentum to the second.
Continuing to hold Hutchinson without a point for three minutes stretching into the second period, Barton's run extended to nine straight as the Lady Cougars clawed to within 20-16 with 8:24 left. Hutchinson then turned the tide in preventing Barton from finding the net for the next seven minutes while tacking on thirteen points of their own. Megan Jirak's baseline trey ended the drought at the 1:32 mark and following a couple of missed Hutchinson shots, Juliana Chagas provided a spark for the Lady Cougars putting on dribble highlight between Blue Dragon defenders with a coast to coast layup cutting the deficit to 33-21 to the halftime locker room.
Hutchinson kept Barton at arms length early in the third until consecutive And-1 opportunities by Regan Unruh and Welsch fell short from the charity stripe leading a 7-2 spurt to close within 39-30 with five minutes remaining. Following a Rogers jumper with 4:31 left taking the lead back out to eleven, Hutchinson would go cold for the next six-plus minutes making a total of three field goals in the quarter on 21.4% shooting stretching to the 7:55 mark of the fourth including making just four of eight free throw attempts keeping the door open for Barton. Roenfeldt took the first step thru the threshold knocking down her second trey cutting the deficit to eight but Barton could manage only a Michaela Jellison jumper in the next five minutes to miss out on the opportunity.
Jirak's second three-pointer cut the deficit to nine with 7:40 remaining and following an Butina move to the hole, Unruh's bucket again cut it to nine with 6:53 left. It would be as close as Barton would get the rest of the way as Barton went cold and Hutchinson got hot going on an 11-0 run in the ensuing four minutes to stick the dagger in Barton's season with a twenty point lead with 2:38 on the clock.