The Barton Community College women's basketball team bounced back from its first loss of the season in a pull-away 72-47 victory Tuesday at the Barton Gym over the junior varsity squad from Kansas Wesleyan University.
The Cougars continue their four-game home stretch this weekend in the Best Western/Booster Club Classic. Barton opens up play Friday against Howard College then takes on Division II No. 5 Labette Community College on Saturday. The Cougars open up conference play next Wednesday hosting Garden City Community College. 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
Trailing by five two minutes into the contest, five different Cougars contributed to 13-0 over the next five minutes to retake the lead for the rest of the night. Mikaela Hall's layup at the 6:03 mark from the first of a team leading five assists from Morgan Meyers put Barton on top for the first time. Alissa Heskamp came off the bench to can a trey then capped the stretch with another layup off another Meyers' dime. Thirty seconds later Heskamp scored in the paint giving the Cougars their largest lead of the frame at 16-9 before the Coyotes closed out the opener scoring the final five points.
The Cougars cranked it up in the second quarter, scoring the first seven points stretching the lead to seven within the first three and a half minutes. Cora Anderson gave Barton their first double-digit lead with 2:39 left with Heskamp's personal 7-0 run sparked by another long range shot widened the margin to its largest of the half at 35-19 with 1:06 left. Barton outscored the Coyotes 21-9 in the quarter and forced just 28.6% shooting.
Barton got hot behind the arc in the third quarter, connecting on 4-of-9 from long range while defensively forced six turnovers with the Coyotes making just two buckets on 16.7% shooting. Meyers knocked down all three of her treys in the quarter with Heskamp draining the final of her three on the night helping Barton stretch out the margin to 28 points.
Outscored 16-13 in the final frame, Acorionna Lard added four of her six points in her Cougar debut with Lili Shubert also scoring four with Lyndi Rumford closing out the night with her lone two points for the 25 point victory.
STATS
Heskamp led all scorers with 17 points, shooting 7-of-11 from the field including 3-of-5 behind the arc and hauled down five rebounds. Meyers finished 3-of-7 from long distance on the way to a 13 point and team leading 5 assists. Shubert and Anderson rounded out the double-digit scoring with 10 points each while Dayjsha Fanning just missed her third straight double-double by scoring 8 points and a game high 11 rebounds including 4 on the offensive glass.
Hannah Goetz led KWU with 11 points while Chevelle Ralstin led in rebounds with 10 and 2 assists.