Third quarter dashes Barton women's title hopes, Cougars finish runner-up at Region VI Championship #GoBarton

The Barton Community College women's basketball team's title hunt came to a third quarter crashing halt at Dodge City's United Wireless Arena as the 6th seeded Cougars fell 84-52 Tuesday evening the Region VI Championship game to top seeded Butler Community College. 

Barton concludes the season at 18-16 while the Grizzlies improve to 25-8 on the year punching their second consecutive automatic bid in the NJCAA Championships March 17-21 in Lubbock, Texas.

A bright spot following the disappointment, three Cougars were named to the All-Tournament Team as sophomore Richelle Turney was joined by freshmen Vanessa Oduah and Queen Ulabo.

Trailing by just seven at the halftime break, Barton's disastrous third quarter of eight turnovers and 1-of-12 (8.3%) shooting countered by 50% (10-of-20) shooting for the Grizzlies including five three- pointers broke the game wide open with Butler outscoring the Cougars 29-5 for a commanding 67-36 lead.

First half action was championship quality in four ties and six lead changes with Butler leading by four after the first period before adding three more to the margin into the halftime break.

Semifinal dagger shooter Oduah scored Barton's first seven points on the night including her lone three-pointer sparking a 10-0 Barton run taking a 14-10 lead. Butler countered with the eight points in the final 3:41 to take the edge to the second frame.

Turney led a Cougar 7-2 spurt to open the second, getting a jumper to fall before feeding Hannah Valentine for an eventual And-1 putting then canning a three-pointer putting Barton in front for the final time at 22-20 with 7:42 remaining. Butler surged back in front on seven straight in the next ninety seconds as the teams went toe-to-toe the rest of the frame.

Any chance of another Barton comeback went officially out of the wind early in the fourth as the Grizzlies' then 11th three-pointer of the contest doubled up the Cougars at 72-36 with 8:45 remaining.

The Cougars made a push for a final run with eight straight in the next two minutes but another three-pointer in midst of a six point, forty second stretch pushed the gap back over the thirty point margin.

Turney closed out her Barton career leading the Cougars in scoring, dropping fifteen points and grabbing eight rebounds while Oduah added fourteen with a team high four assists and three steals. Reigning conference player of the week Ulabo concluded the year with her fourth double-double in the last five games, scoring ten points and grabbing eleven rebounds, four coming on the offensive glass.

RaVon Nero led four Grizzlies in double-figures, knocking down four of her six three-pointers in the first half to score twenty-seven points. Camille Down buried two from the behind the arc in flirting with a triple-double by scoring eighteen points, grabbing nine rebounds, and dishing out eight assists while coming up with a game high five steals. Jaelynn McLaurian added thirteen with the Jayhawk East's Freshman of the Year Tamara Nard posting a double-double ten point, fourteen rebound effort helping Butler to their second straight Region VI title.

After shooting just 35.5% in the first half, Barton's third quarter woes pulled down the percentage further in finishing the game at 30.4%. Butler maintained its connections, following a 42.1% first half with another solid twenty minutes until missing a handful of shots in the closing minutes to finish at 41.3% overall.

Connecting on 38% from beyond the arc in the semifinal win on Monday against Hutch, the Cougars sank just 21.7% (5-of-23) beyond the arc while Butler was 13-of-31 (41.9%) with a pair of late misses dropping the percentage.