The Barton Community College women's basketball team split their two games this past weekend at the BSN Sports Tipoff Classic held at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
On Friday, the Cougars erased a five-point third quarter deficit to outscore Northeastern Oklahoma A&M by seven in the frame for an eventual holding on for a 60-59 victory.
In Saturday's contest against Mineral Area College, the Cardinals flipped the game with a 10-0 run to close out the first half in riding on to a 66-59 win.
Barton's first loss moves the Cougars to 2-1 on the early season.
The Cougars begin a four-game home stretch over the course of the next week, beginning Tuesday hosting the junior varsity squad from Kansas Wesleyan University. This coming Friday and Saturday, Barton takes on Howard College and Division II No. 5 Labette Community College respectively in the Best Western/Booster Club Classic. The Cougars then open up conference play next Wednesday as Garden City Community College comes to the Barton Gym. Tip-off time for each of the four contests is 5:30 p.m. with full audio and video coverage found at www.BartonSports.com.
RECAP vs NEO
NEO took an early 8-2 lead behind a pair of three-pointers with Barton countering with a 6-0 spurt to tie it at 8. The Norseman surged back in front with four straight but despite a near four-minute scoring drought and ten turnovers, Dayjsha Fanning's late bucket would keep the Cougars close in trailing by just two at the end of the quarter.
Fanning would add seven more points to her total in the second frame but six additional team turnovers and 44% NEO shooting kept Barton at arm's length with the Norseman leading 29-24 at the break.
The Cougars regained the lead just over two minutes out of the locker room on a 7-0 run getting two from Fanning, a trey from Brennan Kirchhoff, and Jenny Nkem Womsi's inside bucket. NEO responded with the next four then following a Fanning free throw, added a three-pointer for a 36-32 lead. Barton closed to within one after three points from Fanning but another NEO triple key five straight to push the margin to six at 41-35. Barton controlled the next two minutes on a 10-0 run with Kirchhoff converting an And-1, a pair of Fanning free throws, Lili Shubert's bucket, and Alissa Heskamp's triple for a 45-41 lead with 2:06 remaining. The teams traded baskets the rest of the way as Kirchhoff went into double figures sinking a pair of charity stripe shots giving Cougars a 49-45 edge heading into the fourth.
NEO scored the opening bucket of the final frame but Mikaela Hall knocked down consecutive jumpers for a six point margin. Back came the Norseman in grabbing the next eight to regain the lead only to have Nkem Womsi and Fanning helped lead the Cougars back in front at 58-55 late. A tense last minute ensued with NEO cutting it to one with Fanning knocking down a key pair of free throws with 42 seconds left. The Norseman scored quick in cutting the deficit to one and following a Barton possession coming up empty, had the final seven seconds to drain the winner but two attempts fell off the rim.
Fanning recorded her first collegiate double-double in scoring 24 points and hauling down 10 rebounds while Kirchhoff finished with 10 points, to go along with, a team leading 4 assists and 4 steals.
Danelle Arigbabu came off the bench to pace NEO with 14 points and 5 rebounds, Sydney Ellis scored 12 points, and Kristina Ekofo added 11 points.
Both teams shot 41% on the afternoon with Barton countering NEO's plus-six points via long range shooting by sinking 15-of-19 from the free throw line while the Norseman were 50% on their four attempts.
RECAP vs Mineral Area College
The Cougars started off down 5-0 before rallying for six straight. Following the 4:56 media timeout, four straight from Nkem Womsi and Morgan Meyer's first of two first half treys gave Barton a 15-12 lead. MAC countered with a three of their own then knocked down another after Cora Anderson's jumper for an 18-17 lead.
Trading points into the second quarter media timeout, Barton matched their largest lead and what would be their final lead at 32-29 after Kirchhoff connected on her second straight bomb beyond the arc. MAC took control the final three minutes in scoring ten straight to enjoy a 39-32 margin into halftime.
Committing ten turnovers in the opening twenty minutes, Barton committed seven more in the third as MAC's defensive effort helped increase the lead in the quarter. The Cougars did manage to cut the deficit to three a trio of times early in the frame but a 12-0 spurt threatened to break it wide open up Heskamp's And-1 conversion cut the deficit to 54-45 headed to the fourth.
Flipping the script to begin the final ten minutes, Barton upped the tempo in cutting an early 12 point deficit to six at the 4:44 media. The margin would be the closest for Barton the rest of the way, despite getting a handful of stops, the Cougars couldn't convert on the other end in being knocked from the early season unbeaten.
Meyers led the Cougars with 14 points and 6 assists with Fanning posting her second consecutive double-double by scoring 10 points and 11 rebounds. Nkem Womsi added 8 points as did Kirchhoff while also distributing 5 assists.
Quincy Erickson's 3-of-4 shooting behind the arc helped produce 19 points off the bench to lead all scorers. Lexi McCulley contributed 11 points and Mariah Stewart added a double-double performance of 10 points and 10 rebounds.
MAC connected on 7-of-22 behind the arc on their 42.3% shooting while the Cougars were just 4-of-15 from long range contributing to a 37.9% afternoon.