Story by Wyatt Ebersole
The Butler Women never got going in a brutal road loss on Wednesday to the Barton Cougars 47-63. The loss drops the Grizzlies down into third place in the Jayhawk Conference and Barton moves up to second place with the win.
The game started slow, with both sides exchanging turnovers and missed shots over the first four minutes. Barton took a 6-2 advantage with just under six minutes left in the first quarter. At the media timeout, the Grizzlies were shooting 1/10 and were in the middle of a five-minute scoring drought, but the Grizzlies forced six early Barton turnovers to keep the game close. The drought continued over the next two minutes for the Grizzlies until Randi Harding broke the drought with an elbow three to make it 10-5 Cougars with three minutes left in the quarter. Barton would grow their to double-digits with 90 seconds left in the quarter at 15-5 and then made it 17-5 20 seconds later and the Cougs had a 19-5 lead at the end of the first.
The teams traded threes in the first minute, but the Cougars kept rolling on defense and held a 19-point lead at the media timeout of the second quarter 29-10. Barton grew their lead to 20 points right out of the media timeout and then exploded to take a lead as big as 27 with three minutes left in the second quarter. The offensive woes for the Grizzlies continued the rest of the quarter and they trailed Barton 39-14 at the half.
The Grizzlies found a little bit of rhythm to start the second half, scoring on five of their first seven possessions of the third quarter, to cut the Cougar lead back down to 20 points at 45-25 at the media timeout. A corner three from Jaila Harding with four minutes left in the quarter pulled the Barton lead under 20 points for the first time in over ten minutes at 45-28. After three quarters the Cougars led 51-31 over the Grizzlies.
Things didn't change much in the fourth as the Grizzlies couldn't make any major progress on their deficit and the Grizzlies fell 47-63 on the road to Barton.
The Grizzlies will get a full week off and then will host Cowley on Wednesday at 5:30.
NOTES: Butler leads the series against Barton 14-8 since 2011, but Barton has won four of the last five matchups…Butler is 9-3 in road games this season and 98-42 on the road since 2012…This is the Grizzlies third straight loss to Barton…The Butler Women are now 21-3 this season when Freddie Wallace scores 10+ points in a game and are now 0-2 when she doesn't…In this game, Jada Hopson scored the first basket of her college career in a conference game
