CONCORDIA — The Barton Community College Lady Cougars held a lead for a majority of the first half, but let it slip away at the end of the first 20 minutes at Cloud County.
The Lady Thunderbirds took a five-point lead into intermission and held it throughout the second half for a 52-38 Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division victory to close out the regular season for both teams on Wednesday night.
“I thought we played pretty well for a good stretch,” Barton head coach Carter Kruger said. “Then there’d be a period of time where we’d slow down. They just went on a big run (to end the half). We had gotten into a little foul trouble, and we didn’t play with as much energy.”
The Lady Cougars shot 17-for-51 from the field for an abysmal 33.3 percent. They were 0-for-7 from 3-point range.
“The difference between them and us is we played well on defense, I think,” Kruger said. “They just hit the boards really hard. We didn’t get an offensive rebound in the second half.”
Cloud County outrebounded Barton 58-40, including 26-5 on offensive boards. The Lady T-Birds finished with 21 second-chance points. Barton had none.
Cloud County improves to 20-10 on the season, 10-6 in the West. Barton drops to 13-16, 3-13.
Barton travels to Independence on Saturday for a first-round game of the NJCAA Region VI tournament.
After trailing 26-21 at halftime, the Lady Cougars hung with Cloud in the second half.
A 7-0 run capped by a driving layup by Ashton Bruner, who finished with a team-leading 12 points, cut into the lead, leaving Barton trailing 33-32 with less than 10 minutes remaining.
It would prove the closest Barton would come to taking over, as Cloud’s Kamika Mason and Jordyn Alexander made a pair of free throws each.
Alexander, who led Cloud with 12 points, followed that with a layup to move the Lady Thunderbirds ahead 39-32.
Barton’s Blair Bloomfield scored her only basket of the night before Cloud’s Pearlrae Thomas, who totaled 10 points made it 41-34, a lead it added to down the stretch.
Taschell Phillips scored eight points for Barton.
Barton led as much as 19-12 in the first half before Cloud County started to take over with a 12-0 run before halftime.

                                                — Kevin Price

JUNIOR COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference
Western Division

WOMEN

Wednesday

At Concordia

Cloud County Community College 52,
Barton 38
BARTON (13-16, 3-13)
    Ashton Bruner 5-11 2-7 12, Taschell Phillips 4-13 0-0 8, Erin Copeland 2-10 2-2 6, Jackie Bueno 2-4 0-0 4, Taylor Mayes 1-2 0-0 2, Blair Bloomfield 1-6 0-0 2, Ta’Kerra Williams 1-3 0-0 2, Kailai Brantner 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 17-51 4-9 38.
CLOUD COUNTY (20-10, 10-6)
    Jordyn Alexander 3-11 6-8 12, Pearlrae Thomas 5-11 0-0 10, Raneisha Duncan 3-12 0-0 8, Aleesha Coulter 2-10 2-3 8, Paige Champlin 2-5 1-2 5, Kamika Mason 1-6 2-3 4, Megan Stagner 1-5 0-0 3, Jayna Smith 1-10 0-0 2, Brittany Stafford 0-2 0-0 0, Ajai Ford 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 18-76 11-16 52.
    Halftime — Cloud County 26, Barton 21. Three-point goals—Barton 0-7 (Copeland 0-3, Bloomfield 0-4); Cloud County 5-24 (Duncan 2-8, Coulter 2-10, Stagner 1-4, Smith 0-2). Rebounds—Barton 40 (Bloomfield 6); Cloud County 58 (Mason 9). Assists—Barton 9 (Brantner 3); Cloud County 10 (Coulter 3). Steals—Barton 8 (Copeland 4); Cloud County 6 (Coulter 3). Turnovers—Barton 14, Cloud County 13. Total fouls—Barton 19, Cloud County 12. Fouled out—None.