Cougars win West road opener to even conference mark at 1-1

Cougars win West road opener to even conference mark at 1-1
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team tasted victory for the 1st time in Jayhawk West play Saturday with a road win at Garden City. The Cougars did just enough down the stretch this time to snag the 54-53 win from the Broncbusters. The win was the 1st conference win for 1st year head coach Lane Lord. Barton is now 11-5 overall as is Garden City, who fell to 0-2 in West play. Barton will take on Colby Wednesday at 5:30 in the Barton County Gym, going for back-to-back conference wins.

Highlights
Once again the Barton women found themselves in a back-and-forth contest, much like the West opener against Pratt. Barton bolted to a 7-0 lead in the contest, pushed it to 10-2 and eventually 18-7. That 11-point lead would be the largest of the game, however, as Garden immediately struck back. A quick 8-0 run made it 18-15 and the battle was on the rest of the way.

The Cougars led nearly the entire opening half but by less than a handful most of the time. Garden eventually took its 1st lead of the game with 3:15 to play in the half at 25-24. The Cougars took a 31-29 lead to halftime thanks in large part to 19 bench points. Victoria Carlile, the team's leading scorer, had 10 of those bench points.

Much like the opening half, Barton bolted out of the gates again to start the 2nd half as a 6-0 run gave Barton a 37-29 lead. But Garden quickly whittled it to 40-39 and took a 42-41 lead halfway through the final half of action. That lead grew to 46-41 with 9:31 to play but the Broncbusters would score just 7 points in the final 9 1/2 minutes, as the Cougar defense got tough. Garden would hit just 1-of-8 shots from the floor and turn the ball over 5 times during that stretch as the Cougars did just enough to win the contest.

Barton trailed 52-51 with 2 minutes to play. The Cougars would get the lead back when Mayowa Onikute found Vivian Ewalefo for a layup following a time out by the Cougars with 1:35 to play. Ewalefo was fouled on the play and hit the free throw for a 54-52 lead. And while Barton would not score again, its defense – and some missed Garden free throws – allowed the Cougars to win. Garden's Jennifer Salazar hit 1-of-2 free throws with just more than 1 minute to play to make it 54-53. Salazar missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 45 seconds to play and following a missed Barton shot with 23 seconds to play, the Cougars forced a Broncbuster turnover with 4 seconds left to seal the win.

Ewalefo, who had the game-clinching steal, led Barton with 14 points and also grabbed 5 rounds. Carlile ended with her 10 points while Sharece Love grabbed 11 rebounds to go with 8 points.

Stats
Full box scores and stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Wed., Jan. 12 – v Colby, 5:30 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton County Gym)