Home has been kind to the Barton women’s basketball team. Not just this year, but last year as well for this group of sophomore players for the Cougars.
Barton knocked off a pair of ranked teams at home last season and one more earlier this year. So picking up a win Saturday over No. 10 Butler at the Barton Gym was definitely a real possibility.
But turning in a performance against the Grizzlies that would have made Daniel Boone envious was not expected.
Not only did Barton defeat 10th ranked Butler, the Cougars routed the Grizzlies, 83-50.
“You don’t expect to beat the No. 10 team by 30 points,” Coach Alan Clark “But we were ready to go tonight. We got some good practices that really got us prepared for Butler.”
The Cougars are now 4-1 in the Jayhawk and 11-3 overall. Butler is 4-2 and 13-2. The only other loss for the Grizzlies was a 77-61 loss at No. 6 Hutchinson.
After a strong first half, the Cougars took all the doubt out of the rout with a dominating third period. Barton outscored Butler 31-11 in the third to take a 35-point lead into the final 10 minutes.
“Coming out at half, we emphasized the first five minutes of the second half,” Coach Clark said. “We won those five minutes. Hey, Butler is really good. We just played really well.”
The Cougars were sharp in the opening quarter. Barton connected on 8-of-14 shots from the floor and when Richelle Turney knocked down a long trey in the final minute of period, Barton had a 10-point lead. The first period ended with Barton on top 22-15.
Barton held Butler scoreless the first six minutes of the second quarter as the Cougars’ lead grew to 30-15 before the Grizzlies finally made a bucket.
The Cougars had chances to extend that lead even more in the period but wasn’t nearly as sharp on the offensive end as the opening period, taking a 38-23 lead to half.
Barton would not miss its chances to open up the game in the third period.
In that all-important third quarter, after an opening trey by Butler, it was all Barton. The Cougars would score the next nine points as the lead hit 21 when Jaylin Stapleton hit a pull up 15-footer in transition to make it 47-26 with just more than six minutes left in the third.
A Fatou Ndao free throw doubled up the Grizzlies at 56-28 with four minutes left. Barton would double them up again at 62-31 as the lead hit 31 on a Stapleton 3-pointer.
By the time the third period came to an end, Barton had a commanding lead, 69-34 as the Cougars outscored the Grizzlies, 31-11, in the clinching third.
The final period was just of matter of finishing the contest with the biggest lead hitting 38 for the Cougars early in that frame.
Stapleton scored a season-high 22 points and dished out four assists. Turney and Ndao both hit double figures with 12 points. Turney’s 12 points -- all in the first half -- was her second straight 12-point effort and just one short of a season-high. Ndao made 8-of-10 free throws in the win after entering just 7-of-15 at the line on the season.
Taylor Regan grabbed 13 rebounds, including a dominating 10 on the defensive end. Ndao added eight.
Barton still has two more crossover games in the Jayhawk against teams from the East. Next will be at long-time West school Cloud County when the Cougars travel to Concordia Wednesday for a 6 p.m. tip.
Cloud is 3-2 in the Jayhawk and 10-4 overall after a 76-55 win at Northwest Tech Saturday. It will be the first time the schools are on opposite sides of the Jayhawk after realignment this past off-season.
Barton 83, 10 Butler 50
Butler 15 8 11 16 – 50
Barton 22 16 31 14 – 83
Butler (13-2, 4-2) 50
Snipes 1-9 4-7 6, Birch 1-5 0-0 3, Smallwood 3-7 3-4 9, Callins 1-6 2-2 5, Waters 1-5 1-2 3, Downs 3-10 0-0 7, Gooden 1-1 1-2 3, Simoneau 0-0 0-0 0, Ransom 3-4 4-4 10, Johnson 0-3 1-2 1, Gross 0-1 3-4 3, McLaurian 0-1 0-2 0. Totals – 14-52 19-29 50.
Barton (11-3, 4-1) 83
White 2-4 0-0 5, Stapleton 6-16 7-10 22, Regan 2-5 2-4 6, Miller 1-3 5-6 8, Chukwudi 3-3 0-0 6, Turney 5-11 0-0 12, Hunt 1-1 0-0 2, Talbott 0-0 0-0 0, Phillips 0-1 0-0 0, Ndao 2-4 8-10 12, Keith 2-2 0-0 6, Dirks 1-2 0-0 3, Davis 0-1 1-4 1, Nichols 0-1 0-0 0. Totals – 25-54 23-34 83.
3-pointers – Butler 3-18 (Downs 1-3, Birch 1-4, Callins 1-6, Smallwood 0-2, Snipes 0-3), Barton 10-19 (Stapleton 3-6, Keith 2-2, Turney 2-5, Dirks 1-1, White 1-2, Miller 1-3).
Rebounds – Butler 31 (Callins 5), Barton 45 (Regan 13). Assists – Butler 6 (Birch 3), Barton 15 (Stapleton 4). Steals – Butler 12 (4 with 2), Barton 9 (3 with 2). Blocks – Butler 2 (Callins, Gross), Barton 2 (Regan, Chukwudi).
Turnovers – Butler 30, Barton 26. Fouled Out – Downs, Waters, Butler. Technicals – None.
