The Barton Community College women's basketball team led when it mattered the most as the Cougars completed a fifteen point deficit comeback with thirty-four seconds remaining Saturday afternoon in pulling off an 80-79 win at Garden City Community College.
Barton improves their Jayhawk West third place standing to 8-6 and 12-11 on the year while sending Garden City to its fourth straight loss falling to 3-11 in the league and 8-15 overall.
The Cougars begin their second trip around the West division on Wednesday in hosting Pratt Community College in a 5:30 p.m. tip-off. Barton defeated Pratt 61-52 in the team's initial meeting on January 13 at Lesh Arena.
Eight first quarter Barton turnovers coupled with six Garden City made three-pointers on 60% shooting got the Broncbusters out to a 30-18 lead after the opening ten minutes.
Queen Ulabo's layup from Richelle Turney helped Barton cut the deficit to nine early in the second frame but the Cougars went cold for the next three minutes as Garden City built the margin out to fifteen on the team's ninth three-pointer making it 43-28 with 3:38 on the clock.
The Cougars took the next seven points drawing to with eight but Jaleah Bellany drained her fourth triple of the opening twenty minutes to end the stretch.
Connecting on ten three-pointers in the first half, Garden City took a 48-37 lead to the break as both teams were over 50% from the field but a combined twenty-three turnovers.
Barton outscored the Broncbusters 19-18 in the second frame and again by the same score in the third to trail 66-56 into the final quarter.
The teams exchanged a couple of baskets in the first two minutes until a steal by Vanessa Oduah leading to a transition layup seemed to spark the Cougars. Garden City responded with its 13th trey of the afternoon but it did little to swing back the momentum with Bryn Willt's jumper beginning a 7-0 spurt closing the gap to four with 5:15 remaining.
Held scoreless in the opening twenty minutes, D'Shonda Hunt had a big second half, completing the seven point stretch by converting an And-1 and later sinking a pair of free throws.
Hunt provided the answer on the next two possessions, cutting the margin back to four again at the 4:22 mark and 2:14 left.
The Broncbusters converted again on their ensuing possession to push the margin back to six with 1:50 remaining but it would be the last points the home team would score.
Hunt's layup nine seconds later, a missed three pointer by Garden City, and a pair of Oduah free throws had Barton knocking at the door with 1:15 remaining trailing 79-77.
Another missed shot by the cooled off Broncbusters left the door ajar with Oduah driving down the heart of the lane kissing a soft floater off the glass while being fouled. Sinking her 5th of six attempts at the line, Oduah gave the Cougars its first lead since Turney's three pointer opened the evening scoring.
Ulabo secured Garden City's attempted go-ahead but the ensuing free throws wouldn't fall. The Broncbusters immediately called timeout advancing the ball into the frontcourt with 1.1 seconds to play but Ulabo atoned for the missed charity tosses by swatting the Broncbusters' fifteen foot jumper out of bounds as the horn sounded.
Hunt scored all nineteen of her points in the final twenty minutes for game high honors, adding seven rebounds and three steals in giving Barton a big boost. Oduah's game winning And-1 took the freshman's total to seventeen points in capping a solid all-around game of seven rebounds and five assist against three turnovers. Ulabo hauled down a game high twelve rebounds with sixteen points in rounding out the double-digit scoring to record her sixth double-double of the year.
The Broncbusters fell two three-pointers shy of a school record, cooling off to under 35% second half shooting while Barton bounced back from a 29% shooting third quarter with a 56% final frame.
Bellany's seventeen led Garden City behind five three pointers but was held to just 1-of-5 in the second half. Corina Suarez-Tudela added sixteen, Dashanae Pajeaud with twelve, Alyssa Boyce with eleven and Ariyanna Hall contributing ten off the bench. Bellany dished out a game high eight assists as Boyce and Dasja Ross dished out five and four respectively as Garden City had twenty assists on thirty-one made buckets.