EL DORADO — Butler Community College wasted no time taking a lead against the Barton Lady Cougars on Wednesday evening.
The Lady Grizzlies road an early lead to a 72-52 win.
“We had a pretty good game plan of what we wanted to do going in,” Barton head coach Carter Kruger said. “We just didn’t come out and execute.
“Butler is a good team, they’re ranked No. 8 for a reason, and they just took us out of our game plan.”
Barton couldn’t keep up with Butler as the Lady Grizzlies rang up a 37-18 halftime lead.
The Lady Cougars did their best to fight back in the second half, cutting the lead to as low as 12 points, but couldn’t find a foothold for a rally.
It was Ashley Gibson who helped Butler spring ahead early, scoring 14 of her game-high 19 points in the first half. Gibson had 16 rebounds for a double-double.
Barton struggled to the get the ball into the hoop.
The Lady Cougars went frigid from the field, 5-for-27 (18.5 percent) in the first half.
“Their defense dictated what we did on offense,” Kruger said. “They got us sped up and we let them. If we’d just stuck with what our game plan was, I think we’d been fine.
“We did a good job getting to the rim in the first few minutes of the second half. Then we just got away from what was working again.”
Things warmed up a little for Barton in the second half, finishing the game 15 of 57 (26.3 percent).
Kailai Brantner led Barton with 14 points.
Ashton Bruner finished with nine points, and a team-leading 11 rebounds.
— Kevin Price
JUNIOR COLLEGE BASKETBALL
WOMEN
Wednesday
At El Dorado
Butler 72, Barton 52
BARTON (9-3)
Ashton Bruner 4-8 1-3 9, Cheyenne Hedrington 3-5 5-6 12, Taylor Mayes 0-3 1-2 1, Kailai Brantner 3-4 8-11 14, Mariana Lambert 1-12 2-3 4, Sharyce Warren 2-5 0-0 4, Victoria Davis 0-1 0-0 0, KK Anthony 1-9 2-6 4, Bethany Bowman 0-0 0-0 0, Brandy Winbush 1-10 1-2 4, Ciera Lampe 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-57 20-33 52.
BUTLER (12-1)
Te’era Williams 5-10 3-3 13, Ashlee Ivy 1-10 2-2 4, Katie Andersen 1-3 4-4 6, Ashley Gibson 6-13 6-13 19, Teanna Reid 5-10 1-1 16, Shayla Williams 0-2 0-0 0, Chelsea Hodison 0-0 0-2 0, Alli Heimerman 1-2 4-4 6, Bethany Howard 0-0 0-0 0, Elayna Spiker 0-0 0-0 0, Kynadi Johnson 2-9 2-2 6, Shelbe VandeBerghe 0-0 0-0 0, Terryuana Godwin 0-6 2-2 2. Totals 21-65 24-33 72.
Halftime — Butler 37, Barton 18. Three-point goals — Barton 2-19 (Lambert 0-8, Winbush 1-7, Hedrington 1-2, Warren 0-1); Butler 6-16 (Reid 5-8, Gobson 1-2, Ivy 0-3, Andersen 0-1 Williams 0-1, Heimerman 0-1). Rebounds — Barton 42 (Bruner 11); Butler 46 (Gibson 16). Assists — Barton 7 (Brantner 3); Butler 13 (Ivy 5). Steals — Barton 5 (Hedrington, Mayes, Davis, Bowman, Winbush 1); Butler 8 (Gibson 3). Total fouls — Barton 23; Butler 26. Turnovers — Barton 18; Butler 14.
