The Barton Community College women's basketball team methodically pulled away Wednesday night at the Barton Gym, winning the scoreboard in the final three quarters for a 65-53 victory over Dodge City Community College.
Victors of a season high fourth straight, Barton ups its conference mark to a Jayhawk West third best 6-3 record and 10-8 overall while sending fifth place Dodge City to its third straight loss falling to 5-4 in the West and 9-9 overall.
Barton's next action comes Saturday in Colby with a 3:00 p.m. tip at Colby Community College.
Following an evenly played first ten minutes of action with Dodge City leading at 16-15, both teams struggled in the second frame resulting in a combined five field goals and sixteen points. Having held Pratt to just four points on Monday night, Barton's defense was again stifling in the second frame holding Dodge City to just a field goal and pair of free throws to take a 25-22 advantage to the locker room.
The Lady Cougars stretched the gap to six a pair of times in the first two minutes of the third quarter with the Conquistadors firing back with six straight to tie it at the 6:07 mark and again with 3:46 remaining. From there Barton gave Dodge City a view of the tail lights with Queen Ulabo's jumper forty seconds later put the Lady Cougars out in front for good. A pair of Hannah Valentine charity tosses and a five straight from Vanessa Oduah to close out the frame inched the margin out to 42-35 headed to the fourth.
Barton all but seized the victory early in the fourth on an eight point stretch increasing the margin to twelve with 6:14 to play, pushing the gap to fifteen twice as Dodge City couldn't cut the deficit to single digits until late in the contest.
Held to a career low two points on Monday, Barton's leading scorer Richelle Turney got back on track with an eighteen point output to earn game high honors. Ulabo put together an efficient evening's performance, connecting on 6-of-9 from the field including 2-of-3 from deep for a seventeen point night and just missing a double-double with nine rebounds. D'Shonda Hunt also had a solid night of eleven points and seven rebounds with Tiffany Dortland close behind with nine points on 3-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc. Not reaching double-figures but stringing a pivotal all-around game, Oduah put up eight points to compliment a nine rebound effort to go along with four assists and four steals.
Reigning conference player of the week Sydney Thurwalker again had a solid night for Dodge City, scoring a team high fourteen points and eleven rebounds for the double-double. Ashia Pool and Faith Cattouse rounded out the double-digit Conquistador scoring with eleven points each.