Tale of two halves, Barton women's streak ends in loss to 14th ranked Dodge City #GoBarton

The Barton Community College women's basketball team had their five game win streak snapped Saturday afternoon at the Barton Gym in a 67-60 loss to 14th ranked Dodge City Community College.

The Cougars, receiving votes in the latest national poll, held one of the league's highest scoring teams to just twenty-one first half points including a five point second quarter to lead by four at the halftime break.

The tide began to turn in third quarter action as Dodge City battled back to tie it at 41 with 1:40 to play but the Cougars would hold on to lead by one into the final frame.

Canning eleven triples on the night going 11-of-36, the Conquistadors surged back in front with Barton immediately striking back for the game's final tie at 53 with 5:48 left.

Dodge City pushed its lead to six twice but Grace John's second trey of the game and a pair of Conquistador misses gave Barton life with twenty-six ticks left.  The Cougars failed to get a good look three-pointer and following a missed jumper, Dodge City sealed the victory with a perfect four charity tosses in the final six seconds to widen the final margin.

The loss drops Barton to 7-3 in league play and 12-4 overall while the third straight victory in the series pushes the Conquistadors to 9-2 in conference play and 15-2 overall.

Next up for Barton is a Wednesday evening trip to the Hutchinson Sports Arena as the Cougars tangle with the 6th ranked and conference leading Blue Dragons of Hutchinson Community College set for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off.

A trio of Cougars reached double-figure scoring led by Vivian Onugha's 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 6-of-9 at the charity stripe, in addition to five rebounds helping Barton to a slim plus-1 on the boards.

Quezia Bertoni flirted with a triple-double finishing with 14 points and 8 rebounds as the league's leader in assists finished with a game high six dimes.  Tatum Boettjer added 11 points knocking down 3-of-12 from long distance.

Vera Ojenuwa led Barton's rebound advantage with 12 boards in 30 minutes of action but fell short of reaching double figures for the sixth straight game in scoring just 7 points after fouling out with 5:01 remaining.

John, who dished out 4 assists in moving into second place of the league's leaders, added 8 points on 2-of-4 long distance shooting and a team high three steals.

Like the Cougars, Dodge City had three in double figures led by the duo of Layla-J Cameron and Paris Santacaterina's 19 points apiece as the pair combined for 10 of the Conquistadors' 11 made three-pointers. Parris Atkins added 13 points with Shorna Preston pulling down a game high 15 rebounds.

SERIES NOTES:
- Dodge City has won the last three meetings
- Dodge City has won the last two games in Great Bend
- Barton leads the series 43-4 in Great Bend
- Barton leads the overall series 74-20