The Barton Community College women's basketball team shook off a slow start Wednesday night at the Barton Gym with a fifty-one point second half to cruise 78-57 over Cloud County Community College.
Back to .500 in conference play at 3-3, Barton improves to 7-8 overall by snapping a two-game losing streak to Cloud County in dropping the T-birds to 2-5 in the Jayhawk and 7-10 on the year.
Next up will be a road trip to Iola, Kansas, on Saturday for a 2:00 p.m. tip at Allen County Community College.
Barton never led in first half action as Cloud County buried five three pointers in the first quarter, building an eleven point margin to lead by four at the first frame horn before extending the margin back out to eight at the halftime break at 35-27.
The tide turned in the third quarter as the Lady Cougars would outscore the T-birds by twenty-one points. Following Jacy Dalinghaus' fourth three-pointer of the game with 8:21 left giving Cloud County a 38-28 lead, Barton would own the next 5:47 of the clock with a 24-0 stretch to flip the scrip.
Led by Vanessa Oduah's eleven points in the streak of points, D'Shonda Hunt began the comeback with a 1-of-2 trip at the line, put the Cougars out front for good with 5:57 left, then capped the outburst with her sixth point putting Barton out front by fourteen 52-38 with 2:12 remaining. KayCee Miller also dropped a big shot in the stretch, canning her lone three-point attempt putting Barton in front by four following Hunt's go-ahead basket.
Outscoring the T-birds by twenty-one in the third frame behind 75% shooting for a 57-44 lead, Barton kept the foot on the pedal in the fourth quarter tacking on eight more points to the margin.
Grabbing eight rebounds, Oduah's twenty-two points tied for game high honors in leading four Cougars in double digits. Queen Ulabo and Hunt each pulled down nine rebounds to also just miss a double-double performance as Ulabo tallied fifteen with Hunt finishing with ten. Richelle Turney added ten points while Paige Talbott came off the bench giving the Cougars twenty-one minutes of solid court time to score nine points and haul down four rebounds. Distributing seventeen assists on thirty made buckets, Kolby Davis and Hannah Valentine led the squad in dishing out four dimes each.
Dalinghaus led just two Cloud County players in double digits, tying Oduah's game high total of twenty-two in part to knocking down 5-of-8 behind the arc. Kelsie Kelly added eleven points with LaKya Leslie hauling down a game high eleven rebounds.