WICHITA – A repeat effort was not in the cards for the Barton Community College women’s basketball team.
Last season the Cougars used an upset win to advance to the semifinals and one win from a spot in the Region VI title game.
Wednesday afternoon at Koch Arena on the campus of Wichita State University Barton tried to match that feat against the top seed from the Jayhawk East. But this year is wasn’t to be.
The Cougars lost 60-46 to Coffeyville, ending their season with a 19-11 record. Coffeyville (24-8) moves to the semifinals and a date with No. 9 Seward County Friday.
“We played as hard as we could today, we just didn’t play well enough,” Barton coach Carter Kruger said. “That’s how it goes sometimes, thing don’t always work out. It wasn’t for lack of effort, just execution.
“We turned the ball over way too much and I needed to help put us in better situations to take care of the ball. Coffeyville deserves alot of credit, too.”
For a while Wednesday it looked as if the Cougars might be on the same path as the previous season.
Barton, the fourth seed from the West, battled toe-to-toe with the East champ. After a slow start, Barton caught the Red Ravens at the midway point of the opening half, trailing just 13-12.
Barton overtook Coffeyville in the low-scoring battle with 4:21 to play in the half on a pair Dominique Baker free throws for a 17-16 lead. Barton led 20-19 at half.
The opening minutes of the second half would be the Cougars downfall.
Coffeyville used a 13-1 run out of the gates to start the second 20 minutes and take a 32-21 lead with 15:19 left. From there it was an uphill battle for Barton.
Barton put a scare in Coffeyville with a 9-0 run to cut a 16-point deficit to 47-40 on an Indiah Cauley bucket with five minutes left. But Coffeyville responded with a 5-0 run of its own to end the Barton threat.
Barton didn’t go away lightly and when Cauley scored with 2:17 left the Cougars had  put together a quick 6-0 run to make it 52-46.
Those would be the final points of the game, however, for Barton as its season ended with the quarterfinal loss.
“This team improved more from September to March than any team I’ve coached, unfortunately we met a quality opponent and didn’t play our best game,” Coach Kruger said.
Cierra Lampe scored 16 points to pace the Cougars. The Dodge City sophomore hit 5-of-8 3-pointers and grabbed eight rebounds.
Phikala Anthony closed out a steller Barton career with 12 points for the Cougars. She leaves the single season leader in free throws made and second for her career. She also led Barton with eigth rebounds.
Anthony is the reigning NJCAA national Player of the Week after back-to-back 29 point efforts last week.
Also closing out her career was Bethany Bowman.