The Barton Community College women's basketball team dominated the opening ten minutes Wednesday night at the Barton Gym for a cruise control 93-56 victory over Northwest Kansas Technical College.
The Cougars rattled off the final twenty points of the opening frame, tacking on four more in the opening second frame, in going on to lead by thirty at the break. After being outscored in the third period, Barton widened its gap in the fourth to as many as 42 points to avenge last year's home defeat to the Mavericks.
Barton stays in the hunt for a top four seed of the approaching region playoffs, improving to 13-9 in conference play and 16-12 overall. Northwest Tech remains tied for the final playoff spot, dropping to 2-19 in league and 4-21 overall.
Just two games remain on the regular season slate beginning Saturday with a 2:00 p.m. tip at Colby Community College before next Wednesday's finale hosting Dodge City Community College.
Twelve Cougars contributed to the team's second highest scoring output, five Cougars reaching double figures led by Morgan Meyers' 18 points. Jenny Nkem Womsi and Mikaela Hall led the inside play for a 30 point Barton advantage in the paint, Womsi scoring 16 points with 8 rebounds while Hall scored 10 points and hauled down 9 rebounds. Brennan Kirchhoff earned the game high board honors with 10 rebounds, adding in 12 points for her second double-double of the year while flirting with a triple-double in dishing out seven assists. Meyers led the distribution with 8 assists with Acorionna Lard dishing out 4 as the Cougars had 21 assists on 35 made buckets.
Bench production also outscored the Mavericks by seven points, Alissa Heskamp dialed in from beyond the arc on her three attempts to finish with 9 points, Lili Shubert perfect from deep on her pair of a shots for 8 points, and Dayjsha Fanning hauling down 9 rebounds in fourteen minutes while adding 4 points.
Third frame shooting of just 38.5% was the lone dark spot on the Cougars' night from the field, beginning with a 11-of-17 in the first quarter in finishing up the contest at 51.5% including 9-of-17 from beyond the arc (52.9%) and 73.7% free throw shooting (14-19). Barton outrebounded its opponent for the 22nd time in 18 games, grabbing 13 on the offensive glass in nearly doubling up the Mavericks 53-27 overall.
Northwest Tech finished at 30.8% for the game, 8-of-29 from deep (27.6%), and a near perfect 8-of-9 from the stripe.
Natalie Lara led the Mavericks with 14 points and 5 rebounds with Neylan Delicado coming off the bench to add 11 points.
RECAP
The Cougars never trailed in the contest as Womsi, Hall, and Kirchhoff staked Barton out to a 6-0 lead. The Mavericks canned their first trey of the night before adding a jumper to draw within one but Meyers' pair of charity tosses kept Barton out front. Following a Mavericks bucket, the game was all but decided in the final six minutes of the opening frame as Barton went on a 20-0 run to end the quarter leading 29-7.
Kirchhoff and Meyers banged consecutive treys early in the stretch with Shubert and Heskamp also getting in the long range fun in the final ninety seconds.
Cora Anderson and Fanning jumpers opened up the second quarter to expand the stretch to 24 straight points. A pair of Maverick free throws halted a near eight minute scoring stretch as back-to-back three-pointers capped an 8-0 run drawing Northwest Tech to within eighteen. Trading points on the next five possessions, Shubert's second trey of the game pushed the gap back over twenty points for the rest of the night as Barton would later close out the frame with ten straight for the big halftime lead.
The Mavericks outscored Barton in the third quarter 17-13, in part to the Cougars' paltry 38.5% shooting and four turnovers. Meyers strung seven straight points together as Hall knocked down a pair of jumpers in the point swap period until Northwest Tech rattled off the last five of the quarter and the first two of the fourth for a 7-0 spurt.
Meyers' trey halted the Maverick spurt with Womsi contributing four points in a seven point Barton spurt. Following a Maverick three pointer, the Cougars strung together thirteen straight to claim their largest lead of the night of 42 as Erin Foxhall completed a driving layup with 4:43 left.
Barton's final points of the night were the loudest of the night as Hoisington native Keeley Wolf drained her first collegiate triple setting off celebration from all around the Barton Gym and Cougar bench with 1:58 left pushing the score to 93-51.