The Barton Community College women's basketball team opened up the 2021 campaign pulling away for an 87-55 victory over the junior varsity squad from Sterling College.

The Cougars make the short trip to Hutchinson for their next pair of games participating in the Blue Dragon Classic, taking on Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College on Friday followed by Saturday's matchup against Mineral Area College. Tip-off time for each slated for 1:00 p.m. with live stream coverage available on the Barton Sports Network found at www.BartonSports.com.

Three Cougars making their Barton debut led the scoring with Morgan Meyers atop the list with a 20 point, four assist, and three steal performance. Multi-sport athlete Dayjsha Fanning was next in line with 18 points, scoring eight straight for the Cougars early in the fourth frame, while also hauling down seven rebounds with three coming on the offensive glass.   Jenny Nkem Womsi rounded out the double digit scoring with 10 points in just thirteen minutes of court time including a first half buzzer beater in scoring Barton's final six points of the half. Mikaela Hall led the rebounding with 8 while Lyndi Rumford joined Meyers for team high distribution honors with four assists.

Dani Staats came off the bench to lead Sterling with 14 points as Lucy Lally and Tia Moddelmog contributed 11 points each.

Barton began the first quarter shooting 50%, cooling off each frame to 42.3% for the game including 36.8% (7-of-19) from long distance.   Sterling shot 29.9% for the game, just 2-of-14 from beyond the arc (14.3%).  In the 49 foul plagued contest, Barton sank 20-of-28 (71.4%) from the free throw line while the Warriors were 13-of-22 (59.1%)

RECAP
Seven Cougars reached the scoring column in first quarter action in building an eleven point lead.  Fanning put Barton on the board first but Sterling countered with the next five in taking their lone and largest lead coming at 5-2.  The Cougars answered with a 13-0 run with four different players contributing including treys from Brennan Kirchhoff and Meyers.  The Warriors cut the deficit back to five twice, the first coming on a 5-0 spurt and the last coming at 17-12. Lili Shubert's bucket keyed a 6-0 close-out of the quarter as Hall added four points and Cora Anderson finished the scoring of the opening ten minutes.

The teams traded points the first six minutes of the second frame, Barton knocking down buckets while the Warriors earned their points mostly from the charity stripe as the Cougars lead stood at six points.  Shubert's baseline triple ramped up the energy sparking a 10-1 stretch pushing the margin out to 40-25.  The next four points went on the visitor's side of the scoreboard late in the frame before Womsi's offensive putback at the buzzer for her sixth straight point led the Cougars to the locker room on the top side of a 44-29 score.

Third quarter action again had the teams exchanging points through the first five minutes before Barton closed out the quarter on a 9-0 run, spreading the wealth with Womsi and Quezia Bertoni points followed by Alissa Heskamp's first collegiate triple tickling the twine at the third quarter buzzer.

Keeley Wolf opened up fourth quarter scoring with her collegiate first, stepping just inside the arc completing Barton's nine straight stretching between the quarters.  Sterling tallied the next three points before Fanning's personal 8-0 run increased the gap, eventually stretching to 33 with 3:43 remaining following a pair of Rumford's charity tosses.