The Barton Community College women's team was 5.9 seconds from defeat Saturday night at the Barton Gym but five ticks later the Lady Cougars were victorious in a 68-67 win over Butler Community College. Barton improved to 2-1 in Jayhawk play and 5-2 on the year as Butler falls to 1-2 and 4-2 overall. The Lady Cougars will be back on the court on Tuesday as the unblemished and No. 8 Lady Saints of the Seward County Community College (3-0, 5-0) come to the Barton Gym for a 5:30 p.m. tip at the Barton Gym.
Having a twelve point fourth quarter lead wiped off the board by a valiant Butler comeback, the Lady Cougars were left trailing on the scoreboard as Ericka Mattingly's coast-to-coast drive to the hole gave the Grizzlies their first lead in nearly five minutes. Calling timeout and with an inbound spot at the hash in front of the Barton student section, Jaylin Stapleton inbound penetration drive was cut short but spotted fellow freshman Mallory Miller deep in the corner for an open trey, splashing down with just .7 seconds on the clock for the game winner.
The trey was the fifth of the game for the Goddard native coming off the bench in finishing 5-of-10 from behind the arc in the collegiate best effort matching Stapleton for team high honors with eighteen points. The three-ball was also the second clutch shot for Miller as she ended a 10-0 Butler run after the Lady Grizzlies seized the lead at 57-55 while also putting a halt to Barton's five and half minute scoring drought.
Behind a twenty point bench production from Jalise Smallwood to lead all scorers, five coming in the final quarter, Mattingly added ten of her thirteen points in the final frame as the duo scored fifteen of Butler's twenty points in the fourth quarter comeback. Kyla Callins put up ten first half points but was held to just one field goal in the final twenty minutes to finish with twelve.
Three-point shooting not only provided the game winner but proved to be the difference maker as Barton connected on twelve behind the arc while Butler had just three drop. Both teams finished with forty rebounds with Taylor Regan flirted again with a double-double with nine points and ten rebounds with Irene Chukwudi one board behind at nine while Callins led a balanced Butler glass attack with five.
Juliana Chagas dished out a career high eight assists as the Lady Cougars finished with seventeen on twenty turnovers while Butler had just seven dimes with nineteen turnovers.
Seward County comes to the Barton Gym with two big victories already in conference play, knocking off No. 12 Hutchinson to open the conference season before most recently traveling to Concordia to bury a Cloud County squad 78-55 who had also knocked off the Dragons last Saturday.
Other Game Notes:
- Barton's victory snapped a nine game losing streak to Butler including three straight at the Barton Gym; Barton's last win over Butler came Feb. 15, 2012, in a 60-53 victory at the Barton Gym
- Barton now leads the overall series 55-26 including 27-11 at the Barton Gym
- The twelve made three-pointers were a season high and the third time Barton has made ten or more from beyond the arc this season
- The twenty turnovers matched a season high coming in the November 4 loss against NOC-Enid