The hopes of reaching the Region VI Championship for the fifth straight year fell short Friday afternoon as the Barton Community College women's basketball team fell 49-39 to top seeded and the nation's top ranked Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons in the semifinal round.
A near carbon copy script from the prior meeting just two weeks ago in Great Bend had the Cougars out to an early eight-point lead in the opening seven minutes and holding a 15-10 advantage through the first quarter.
The tide quickly swayed at 7:31 into the second frame when the Cougars' leading scorer Vera Ojenuwa exited with her second foul. To compound the issues, Barton went ice cold at just 3-of-10 from the field and committed seven turnovers while the Blue Dragons shot a sizzling 4-of-6 from behind the arc in their 7-of-11 overall shooting in the quarter. The result was Hutchinson outscoring Barton 20-7 to flip a deficit into an eight-point halftime lead.
The Blue Dragons continued to protect home court out of the locker room to build their largest lead of 18 points in the third quarter as Barton's fight for the upset was only able to cut the deficit to ten in the remaining twelve minutes.
The loss concludes Barton's 2023-24 season at 22-10 while Hutchinson continues its perfect season at 32-0 and advances to Saturday's 3:00 p.m. Region VI Championship game against Butler Community College who upset No. 17 Dodge City Community College 65-52 in the other semifinal game.
Despite holding Hutchinson to its season low point total, the Cougars were also held to its lowest output for the second game in a row against the Blue Dragons as the teams combined for the series' second lowest total scoring.
On the bright side for the 2023-24 squad, the Cougars' defensive effort all season set a program record by holding its opponents to just 54.0 points per game in bettering last year's top mark of surrendering just 54.7 per outing.
Connecting on just 30.2% from the field including 4-of-20 from long distance, Ojenuwa was the lone Cougar to finish in double figures as the freshman posted her 16th double-double of the year in finishing with 10 points and 13 rebounds despite being held to just ten minutes of court time in the first half.
Vivian Onugha added nine points with a game high 12 rebounds as Grace John concluded her Barton career producing 9 points on 3-of-8 arc shooting with 5 rebounds and 3 assists.
The Blue Dragons finished at 37% shooting on a tale of two "halves", 57.8% (11-19) in the middle portion of the contest and just 22.2% (6-27) in the opening ten and concluding ten minutes of action.
Two reached double digit scoring led by Bree Horyna's 11 points off the bench behind 3-of-4 long distance shooting helping Hutchinson to a 9-point advantage from its reserves. Journey Armstead rounded out Hutchinson's double figure scorers with an all-around game of 10 points, 5 rebounds, and distributing a game high 5 assists.
SERIES NOTES:
- Hutchinson has won 6 of the last 7 in the series
- Second straight game in series Barton's been held to 39 points
- 88 combined points is the second lowest combined between the two teams
- Hutchinson leads the series in the Sports Arena 25-23
- Barton leads the overall series 57-47
Record Book Impacts
Tatum Boettjer
- 83 made three pointers in a season – *3rd most – Finishes 10 behind Ipek Turkyilmaz (2007-08) )
- 237 attempted three pointers in a season - *2nd most tied with Ipek Turkyilmaz (2007-08)
Quezia Bertoni
- 83.3% free throw shooting – Finishes 1st in single season with 75 minimum attempts
Team Defense
- Allowed just 54.0 points per game – Program Record – Bettering 54.7 points per game (2022-23)
- 973 Defensive Rebounds – 6th most defensive rebounds
- 30.4 Defensive Rebounds per game – Tied for 4th best with 2017-18 team