Everyone plays it out in their youth. Three, two, one, jumper at the buzzer, Good for the win.
Few get to play it out in real life. Mallory Miller did Saturday night for the Barton women’s basketball team.
Her 3-pointer with 0.8 seconds left gave the Cougars a thrilling 68-67 Jayhawk Conference win over Butler at the Barton Gym.
Trailing by two points with just five seconds, Barton’s Jaylin Stapleton took the inbounds pass from the wing, drove the lane and kicked it out to Miller for an open 3-pointer in front of the Barton bench. Swish.
“It was pretty awesome,” Barton Coach Alan Clark said. “Jaylin set it up with her penetration and Mallory knocked it down. Wins like that are pretty fun.”
Barton led nearly the entire game but after an Ericka Mattingly fast-break layup with five seconds left, Butler was on the verge of winning. A timeout gave Barton the ball at halfcourt, setting up the final game-winner for Miller, a freshman from Goddard.
“We had a shot for the lead late, but couldn’t get it to go,” Coach Clark said. “Then they bring it down and score for the lead. As well as we played, that would have been a tough loss to swallow.”
The Cougars took the control of the opening half in the final few minutes. Trailing 30-28, Barton scored the final nine points of the half for a 37-30 halftime lead.
The Cougars kept it up to start the third period. Barton scored the first four points of the quarter, opened on a 7-2 run and led 44-32 with six minutes left in the quarter. It was the first double digit lead of the night for either team.
The Cougars maintained their lead throughout the third period, taking a 55-47 lead into the final 10 minutes of play.
Barton struggled to make a shot in the opening minutes of the final period, as Butler whittled away at the lead. The Grizzlies scored the first eight points of the quarter, tying it at 55-all with 7:25 left in the game.
Mattingly gave Butler its first lead late in the second quarter on a running layup with 5:40 left. Barton immediately answered on a Miller trey to retake the lead at 58-57 with 5:30 to play. It was the first points of the final period for the Cougars.
One minute later, Miller knocked down another trey and a foul away the ball gave the Cougars possession as well. Irene Chukwudi would eventually score on the possession and Barton had a 63-58 lead with just more than four minutes left.
Butler scored the next five to tie it at 63-all with 2:30 left. The game stayed tied at 63-all until the final minute of play.
Miller and Stapleton each scored 18 points to lead the Cougars. Miller hit on 5-of-10 treys. Taylor Regan had a good night as well, as the Otis-Bison freshman scored nine and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. Juliana Chagas led Barton with eight assists.
Jalise Smallwood led all scorers with 20 for Butler and Mattlingly added 13.
Barton will have its hands full next time out. The Cougars will travel to Liberal to take on unbeaten and No. 8 Seward County. The Saints are 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the conference following an 80-53 win at Cloud County Saturday night.

Barton 68, Butler 67
Butler 20 10 17 20 – 67
Barton 16 21 18 13 – 68
Butler (4-2, 1-2) 67
Gooden 2-3 0-0 4, Mattingly 5-13 1-3 13, Birch 2-4 0-0 5, Callins 6-9 0-012, Littlewood 0-1 0-0 0, Roland 0-0 0-0 0, Sanchez 3-5 0-0 6, Simoneau 1-3 0-0 2, Smallwood 7-14 6-7 20, Duru 2-6 1-4 5, Easter 0-0 0-0 0, Ransom 0-3 0-0 0. Totals – 28-61 8-14 67.
Barton (5-2, 2-1) 68
Chagas 3-6 0-0 6, Stapleton 6-21 2-2 18, Regan 3-5 3-4 9, Jellison 2-7 0-0 4, Chukwudi 2-6 0- 04, Dixon 1-3 0-0 3, White 0-1 0-0 0, Ndao 0-2 0-0 0, Dirks 0-2 0-2 0, Dolinksy 2-2 0-0 5, Miller 6-11 1-1 18. Totals – 25-66 6-9 68.
3-pointers – Butler 3-12 (Mattingly 2-7, Birch 1-2, Simoneau 0-1, Smallwood 0-1, Ransom 0-1); Barton 12-33 (Miller 5-10, Stapleton 4-12, Dolinsky 1-1, Chagas 1-2, Dixon 1-2, White 0-1, Dirks 0-2, Jellison 0-3).
Rebounds – Butler 40 (Callins 5); Barton 40 (Regan 10). Assists – Butler 7 (3 with 2); Barton 17 (Chagas 8). Steals – Butler 12 (Callins 3); Barton 4 (Jellison 3). Blocks – Butler 1 (Littlewood); Barton 5 (Chukwudi 4).
Turnovers – Butler 19, Barton 20. Fouled Out – None. Technicals – None.