A school record was little consolation Thursday as the Barton Community College women's basketball team had their season come to an end in the first round of the Region VI quarterfinals as a game tying three-pointer rimmed out at the buzzer in a 73-70 overtime loss at Coffeyville Community College. Barton concludes the season 16-14 while the eighth seeded 17-14 Red Ravens advance to Monday's 1:00 p.m. quarterfinal at Park City's Hartman Arena against top seed and No. 10 ranked Seward County Community College.
Having lost by twenty-five back on January 10 in their previous trip to Nellis Hall Gymnasium, the Lady Cougars fought tough throughout the entire contest in never allowing the lead larger than eight points.
Coffeville led most of the game and began the overtime period with a 7-1 start after just two minutes elapsed. But scoring just one point through the first four-plus minutes of the five minute extra period, Barton would get their first field goal in a big way as Mallory Miller canned her seventh three-pointer cutting the deficit to three with thirty seconds left on the clock.
The Red Ravens left the door open on the ensuing possession in missing a pair of free throws as Jaylin Stapleton's quick drive to the cup made it a one point margin with fourteen seconds to play. Coffeyville's MaKayla Tanksley made the first of her two tosses but with the second rimming off, the Red Ravens grabbed the biggest of their 13th offensive rebounds leading to Lucy Burke getting fouled and heading to the line. Making the first but missing the second for a three point lead, Barton secured the rebound in getting the ball to Stapleton who drove down the court and found an open Madison Dirks with a Raven closing fast. Letting it fly in front of the Barton bench, the Montezuma freshman's potential tying shot did everything but go through the hoop as the buzzer sounded sending the Red Ravens to the next playoff round.
Barton got off to a slow start scoring wise but the Red Ravens could only manage an eight point margin mid-way through the opening quarter. Barton would climb back behind Miller and Stapleton treys to trail by two at the end of the quarter.
Miller buried her third trey of the game three minutes into the second giving Barton its first lead at 16-15, then later sank three charity tosses after being fouled to tie it up at 22. The Red Ravens would take six of the next eight to lead 28-24 to the locker room.
The fifth trey out of the Eisenhower product's hands cut a seven point deficit to four midway through the third with the Red Ravens holding off Barton for a six point advantage to the fourth.
Coffeyville couldn't increase the lead in fourth frame as the margin hovered around four most of the quarter. A Stapleton charity toss and a pair from Micaela Jellison cut the gap to two and later Millers sixth bomb cut it to one with under two minutes to play.
Helping to lead the Lady Cougars to a school record 73.4% free throw shooting, Stapleton was fouled on a three-point attempt with 1:20 to play and the Meade freshman calmly sank all three tosses to tie it at 62-all.
Coffeyville regained the lead with 55 seconds left but Stapleton answered with her own drive to the dish while crashing to the floor knotting it back up at 64 with thirty-six clicks on the clock.
The Red Ravens had a couple shots for the win including a 15-footer at the buzzer missing its mark sending it to overtime.
Miller concluded her freshman season in double figures for the fourth straight game in knocking down 7-of-12 from behind the arc to lead all scorers with twenty-six points. Two double-double efforts came from fellow freshmen as Albert's Taylor Regan scored fifteen with fifteen rebounds for her eighth of the season while Stapleton added fourteen and dished out a career high twelve dimes for her fourth double of the year. Jellison finished her Barton career with eight points to go along with four rebounds.
The Red Ravens also had three double-digit scorers led by the twenty-two point effort by Tatiana McCree. Lucy Burke added seventeen while Sky Jasper scored sixteen with a team high five assists. Alexis Wooden led the rebounding with eleven to go along with eight rebounds.
Sinking 473 of their 644 tosses from the free throw line for 73.4%, the 2017-18 Lady Cougars left their mark atop the charts in bettering the 2014-15 squad's 71.8% (481-670). Miller led the way with 87.8% (43-49) but didn't reach the program's minimum attempts to get into the books. Etching their names on the list however was Jellison and Stapleton with Jellison at a third best 81.0 (68-84) while Stapleton was right behind at 80.9% (144-178).
Led by Regan's season's second best 240 defensive rebounds and fifth best 313 total rebounds, the Lady Cougars also finished outside the program's top five with 945 defensive boards.