Doing what the previous eleven Cougar trips to the Sports Arena couldn't pull-off, Wednesday night the Barton Community College women's basketball team controlled most of the action in knocking off the 16th ranked Blue Dragons of Hutchinson Community College 63-49.
Taking the lead late in the first quarter, Barton stayed out front the remaining thirty-plus minutes to win on the red and blue trimmed court for the first time since 2009 while also snapping Hutchinson's 25-game home site victory string.
Winners of two straight against the Blue Dragons dating back to last season's Region VI semifinals, the sixth straight win of the year puts Barton on the heels of the conference top spot at 9-3 and 10-3 overall. Hutchinson stays on top, slipping to 10-3 in league and 11-3 on the year in having their seven game win streak snapped.
Queen Ulabo posted her third straight double-double performance in leading Barton with 18 points and ten rebounds. Vanessa Oduah poured in 16 points to go along with seven rebounds and two assists. Tiffany Dortland's solid all-around game contributed 14 points, four rebounds, and four assists. Cora Anderson hauled down seven rebounds with Gabby Flute Player draining two momentum building first half three-pointers as Marliah Johnson added a lot of the little things including contributing three points and four rebounds.
Playing without the squad's leader scorer in Tor'e Alford, Hutchinson was led by Kayhla Adams' 13 points and Ishante Suttington's nine.
Amongst the top shooting teams in Region VI, both squads struggled in finding the bottom of the net. Barton connected on just 37.5% but was 5-of-11 beyond the arc in the first half helping to build the lead and momentum. The Cougars were also efficient at the free throw line, shooting a season best 88.2% (15-17) as Oduah and Ulabo were perfect on their six trips each to the stripe.
The Blue Dragons shot just 31.1% on the night, 5-of-23 from deep, and 6-of-11 on charity tosses resulting to its lowest point production of the season.
RECAP
Over two minutes clicked off the clock before either team could score with Barton later leading 4-2 two minutes later. Hutchinson seemed to have found their stride in the next four minutes with eight straight for the largest lead of six coming at 10-4 with three minutes remaining.
A Lyndi Rumford bucket followed by a pair of jumpers by Brennan Kirchhoff tied it at ten with a minute remaining before Flute Player drained her first trey giving Barton a 13-10 advantage after the first frame.
The Cougars run continued into the second ten minutes of action with Ulabo hitting the scorebook for the first time of the game capping Barton's 11-0 run resulting in a 15-10 lead. A Hutchinson bucket cut the margin to three but it was as close as the Blue Dragons would be the remaining twenty-nine minutes as Dortland drained a three-pointer in a personal five point spurt quickly pushing the gap to eight.
Barton methodically grew the margin to fourteen behind four and five point spurts with 3:35 to play. The Cougars would drain 5-of-11 behind the arc in the first twenty minutes while eight first half turnovers and just 29% shooting kept Hutchinson from making a run as Barton would eventually go to the locker room with a thirteen point 37-24 edge.
Four straight from Oduah and a Hutchinson bucket later, Dortland drained her second arc eclipser pushing the lead out to a then-most seventeen points with 1:23 on the third quarter clock.
Following the Blue Dragons' jumper to close out the third quarter, Ulabo pushed the gap back to seventeen to open the fourth with a pair of Dortland charity tosses two minutes later hit the then-largest lead again.
Hutchinson buried a three-pointer a possession later and had numerous chances to mount a comeback as consecutive Barton turnovers left the door slightly ajar. However, the Blue Dragons came up empty and Barton put the game out of reach with six straight including four points from Dortland for a 59-39 Cougar lead with 4:05 left.
Four straight from Ulabo countering Hutchinson's four straight pushed it back to the game high twenty point margin with two minutes remaining. The Blue Dragons cut it to fourteen scoring the final six points but finished one less than its previous low of 50 in a loss to Butler.