25th ranked Cougars hold on for win at Cloud County #GoBarton

The 25th ranked Barton Community College women's basketball team led throughout Sunday afternoon in holding off Cloud County Community College 63-58 at the Arley Bryant Gymnasium.

Postponed from Saturday due to weather, the Cougars came out hot in scoring the afternoon's first eleven points. Leading by seven into the second, Barton hung the first seven on the board to open the frame for its largest lead of fourteen points in what would be dwindled down to just five by the halftime break.

Gradually increasing its lead back out to twelve by the end of the third frame, the Cougars had to hold off a Thunderbird fourth quarter charge in the final two minutes. Unlike its previous time on the court in failing to hold a large lead, Quezia Bertoni's perfect pair of late trips to the free throw line helped squach the comeback in sealing Barton's 9th straight win of the series and 3rd straight in Concordia.

The first true road victory of the year improves Barton to 2-1 in conference play and 6-2 overall while Cloud County's second straight loss drops the Thunderbirds to 1-2 in league and 5-3 on the season.

Having wrapped up its two-game road swing with a 1-1 mark, Barton gets back home for its next contest coming Wednesday in a 5:30 p.m. tip hosting Cowley College.

Career high performances led the Cougars on the afternoon as just five players hit the scoring column.

Bertoni just missed her first collegiate double-double with a personal best 27 points on 8-of-10 shooting and 10-of-14 from the stripe while hauling down a career high 9 rebounds, dishing out 3 assists and recording 3 steals.

Posting her second straight double-double, Vivian Onugha put up a career high 16 points in matching her collegiate best 12 rebounds for the second straight outing as well.

Tatum Boettjer also matched her collegiate best of 7 rebounds, draining a pair of third quarter triples and a late lay-in from Bertoni's dish for Barton's final points in finishing with 8 points.

Vera Ojenuwa added 8 points and 9 rebounds with point guard Grace John contributing 7 rebounds helping Barton to a plus-16 edge on the glass while adding 2 steals and 4 points to round out the Cougars' scoring.

Josephine Igherighe led three Thunderbirds in double digits with 15 points and 9 rebounds, Maimouna Sissoko adding 12 points and 8 rebounds, and Bailey Burns scoring 10 points.

RECAP
Onugha scoring the first four points followed by a John layup and four straight by Bertoni got Barton off to an 11-0 lead.

The Thunderbirds fired back taking eight of the next ten with Onugha ending the near five minute drought for a 15-8 first quarter lead.

Barton again got off to another strong start to the period, tacking on seven more with Ojenwa's four points and Bertoni's And-1 giving the Cougars its largest lead of fourteen with 8:20 remaining.

A Cloud County triple led five straight to curb the momentum, banging another long ball late in the period for a five point close out slicing Barton's halftime advantage to 28-23.

Into the third quarter, Bertoni's second old fashioned play of the game answered Cloud County's five point spurt for a seven point advantage with 3:45 left. Later adding four more points for her eleventh in the period, Bertoni would set up Boettjer for a long ball splash with 28 second left for a 47-36 lead to the final quarter.

Barton maintained a seemingly comfortable double-digit lead to the final 2:38 until Cloud County made things interesting on seven straight slicing the gap to 57-53 with 1:06 left.

Bertoni made a pair of free throws to end the ninety second Barton scoring drought, adding another pair after the Thunderbirds drained a pair of charity tosses.

Following another perfect tosses by the Thunderbirds with 17 seconds left, Bertoni helped seal the third straight win at Cloud County with a dribble drive and dish underneath to Boettjer for the afternoon's final points coming in the waning seconds.

SERIES NOTES
- Barton's 9th straight win in the series
- Lowest margin of Barton victory since Cloud Count's last win on January 9, 2019
- Barton's 3rd straight win in Concordia
- Cloud County leads the series in Concordia 20-15
- Barton leads the overall series 46-35