The bid for its third straight knock-off of one of the conference's big dawgs came up short Saturday in Arkansas City as the Barton Community College women's team had a season high turnover night in falling 65-56 to Cowley College. Barton's end to its modest two-game win streak drops the Lady Cougars to 3-2 in Jayhawk play and 6-3 overall while Cowley remains unblemished on the season at 9-0 and tied atop the early standings at 5-0. The Lady Cougars return to the friendly confines of the Barton Gym on Wednesday in hosting Allen County Community College (1-4, 3-6) in a 5:30 p.m. tip-off.
Coming off a career high twenty-seven points in last Tuesday's upset win over No. 8 Seward County, Mallory Miller made the first of her three first half treys knocking down a left wing jumper giving Barton a 10-8 lead before the first quarter buzzer. Miller's third splashdown came with 1:12 left in second quarter action but Kaitlyn Potter buried one of her six long range bombs on the night giving the Tigers a 24-21 lead to the halftime break.
Potter began the third frame just as she ended the second, with a three-ball, as later the Tigers strung together nine straight to take a thirteen point lead. Back-to-back jumpers from Micaela Jellison steadied the ship with Taylor Regan's offensive put-back at the end of the quarter cutting the deficit to eight.
Miller connected on her fourth long range shot as Barton began a fourth quarter comeback chipping away at the lead while forcing Lady Tigers' turnovers. A Jaylin Stapleton triple, a Regan runner in the lane, and free throws from Irene Chukwudi and Jellison rolled off nine straight points forcing a 51-all tie with 5:01 to play. Potter answered with a trey and following a Barton turnover leading to a quick layup, the Tigers pushed their lead back out to five.
"We were hyped after tying it," said Stapleton. "We knew she (Kaitlyn Potter) was a good shooter and she proved it."
The Lady Cougars kept scrapping, getting Cowley in deep foul trouble, but too much Potter at big moments. With the margin cut to three, the sophomore stuck a demoralizing dagger in Barton with another long range shot at the 2:25 mark as the Lady Tigers sunk free throws down the stretch for the nine-point victory.
Stapleton led three Lady Cougars in double digits with fifteen to go along with Miller's twelve and Jellison's ten. Regan reset her career high rebound mark with twelve boards to grab ten or more for the third straight game and four of the last five games while adding nine points to again just miss her first collegiate double-double. Chukwudi hauled down five of her eleven boards off the offensive glass to help lead a slim 44-43 Barton rebound edge.
Just two Cowley players reached double-digits but thirty-two of those came from Potter on 12-of-28 shooting including 6-of-18 from beyond the arc in posting her fourth thirty-plus point game of the season. Kedranea' Addison contributed eleven off the bench while Samantha Schwab snared five of her team high ten rebounds on the offensive end in falling a point shy of a double-double with nine points to go along with a game high four assists.
Barton's next opponent is coming off a thirty point loss to Butler Community College as the Lady Red Devils dropped to 3-6 on the year to 1-4 in conference play.
Other Game Notes:
- Barton has now lost the last four meetings versus Cowley including two straight in Arkansas City
- Cowley now leads the overall series 25-16 and 9-4 at Arkansas City
- Barton's 32.1% from the field was its second lowest shooting percentage of the season; the lowest came in their other road game in a 30% shooting night at Garden City
- Barton committed a season high twenty-three turnovers; its previous most was twenty