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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
GREAT BEND – The No. 18
Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team saw its chance at a
first conference championship since 1980 all but disappear as the No. 16
Barton Cougars defeated the Lady Dragons 77-65 on Wednesday night at the
Barton Gym.
Barton (22-6, 13-2 Jayhawk
West) used two runs of in the final 10 minutes in the second half of 14-2
run and 10-2 run to finally disperse of Hutchinson, which had erased a
12-point first-half deficit and led 51-48 with 11:19 to play in the game.
“It was the turning point in
the game,” said HCC head coach John Ontjes of the second-half Barton runs.
“When we took the lead and had a chance to go ahead more and they hit a
three. We turned the ball over on three straight possessions. It was the
difference in the game.”
Added sophomore Brittany
Hines: “This was the game I wanted to win the most since I’ve been here. We
were all ready to play this game. We knew we were going to pull it out. It
just didn’t happen. It happens that way sometimes.”
Freshman Ariella McGhee
posted her 10th double-double of the season with 14 points and 15 rebounds
to lead the Lady Dragons (22-4, 10-3), which had its seven-game winning
streak snapped and lost to the Cougars for the eighth-straight time.
Hines hit multiple 3-point
goals for the first time in 24 games and finished with 12 points. Freshman
Naudia Campbell had 12 points and eight rebounds before fouling out.
Freshman Brittany Chamberlin hit 3-point goals and finished with 11 points.
Freshman Heather Robben finished with nine points.
The Lady Dragons shot just
27 of 67 from the field (40.3 percent) and was 7 of 20 from 3-point range.
HCC outrebounded Barton 40-38 and blocked seven shots. The Lady Dragons
committed 18 turnovers, in which the Cougars scored 22 points.
One key stat was that Barton
was 24 of 30 from the free-throw line, 18 of 24 in the second half. HCC was
just 4 of 8 from the stripe. The Lady Dragons were 0 of 3 in the final 20
minutes.
Barton became the first team
in 16 games and just the second this season to shoot better than 40 percent
against Hutchinson. The Cougars were 24 of 57 overall from the field (42.1
percent), going 5 of 11 from 3-point range. Barton had 15 turnovers.
Five players scored in
double figures led by Jordi James’ 14 points. She also had six rebounds and
six assists. Danielle Bird and Tressie Todd had 13 points each. Samira
Harper had 12 points and Michelle White had 11 points and a team-high seven
rebounds.
“We were playing for a
conference title, so losing this one hurts,” McGhee said.
Hutchinson led by three
points early, but Barton went on an 18-4 run to lead 19-8 with 11:52 to play
after a Todd field goal. HCC answered back with a 16-6 run over the next
5:46 and pulled within 25-24 on a McGhee inside hoop with 6:05 remaining in
the half.
The Dragons had the Barton
lead down to one point on three different occasions, the third time on a
Hines’ 3-pointer with 1:39 to play to cut the deficit to 32-31. Barton
scored the final two baskets of the first half to lead 35-31 at halftime.
HCC finally completely
erased that early 12-point deficit and tied the game on 46-all on a McGhee
putback with 13:33 to go. The Lady Dragons took a 49-48 lead on a Chamberlin
trey with 12:04 to play and led 51-48 after a McGhee bucket with 11:19 to
play.
Barton then went on a 14-2
run that was aided by three-straight HCC turnovers to build a 65-53 lead
with 6:04 remaining.
From that point, the Cougars
had just one field goal, but hit 10 of 12 free throws, managing to hold off
one more Hutchinson comeback. After falling behind by 12, the Lady Dragons
went on a 10-2 run, cutting the deficit to 67-63 after a Sasha King basket
with 2:27 to play in the game.
HCC had a chance to trim the
Barton lead further, but back-to-back turnovers sealed the Lady Dragons
fate. Barton closed the game on a 10-2 run.
The Lady Dragons will play
host to Colby at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday night at the Spots Arena.
GAME NOTES
– HCC is now 18-52 all-time vs. Barton, 7-27 in Great Bend. … McGhee jumped
from 10th to fifth on the HCC single-season rebounding list and from fifth
to second on the Lady Dragon freshman rebounding list with 265 for the
season. … This was McGhee’s 13th double-figure rebounding game and sixth of
15 or more boards. … HCC is now 20-2 when outrebounding an opponent. …
Robben tied a season high with three blocked shots. McGhee had a season high
with three blocked shots. … HCC head coach John Ontjes was ejected from the
game in the final minute and will have to serve a one-game league-imposed
suspension.
BOXSCORE
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach John Ontjes
On coming back from this
loss …
“Our kids competed extremely
hard in a tough atmosphere. We talked about three more conference games and
that we need to finish out the conference strong and get a good seed in
Region VI.”
On how the team did
against Barton’s pressure …
“Our kids were very
aggressive. For the most part we took care of their pressure and we attacked
their press.”
Freshman Ariella McGhee
On the free-throw
disparity …
“They went to the line more
than us and that was a big difference in the game. We felt like we were
attacking them. We weren’t getting to the line.”
On Barton’s late
second-half run …
“We just had turnovers that
we should have never had and they made a run.”
Sophomore Brittany Hines
On the aggressiveness
against Barton’s press …
“I felt like we were a lot
more aggressive this game. Barton played good defense and we were called for
more fouls.” |
