The Barton Community College women's basketball team rode a strong third quarter Saturday evening at the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena for a 53-35 victory at Pratt Community College.
Leading by just one at halftime, the Cougars outscored Pratt by eighteen points in the third frame to break it open, holding the Beavers to just fifteen total points in the final two quarters as the teams combined for the lowest combined output in the 87-games history.
The sixth straight series victory improves Barton to 3-4 in conference play and 6-7 overall while Pratt falls to 1-6 in league and 2-9 on the season.
Barton concludes the fall portion of the schedule on Monday hosting No. 14 Butler Community College in a 5:30 p.m. tip-off.
RECAP
Barton scored the first six points of the game, getting consecutive Brennan Kirchhoff buckets answering four straight Beaver points grabbing a 10-4 lead midway through the quarter. Five straight from Pratt out of the media timeout cut the margin to one but Lili Shubert's jumper gave Barton a 12-9 lead to the second.
Alissa Heskamp's first of three treys on the night opened up the second frame as the Cougars' 9-0 run across the quarters capped by a pair of Jenny Nkem Womsi buckets stretched the margin to ten. As the Cougars went cold the remaining seven minutes of the frame, Pratt outscored Barton 12-2 in cutting the halftime deficit to 21-20.
The Cougars came out strong from the locker room scoring seven of the first nine points in the opening three minutes, breaking open the frame three minutes later on a 10-0 run. Heskamp and Morgan Meyers buried treys in the stretch as Barton would outscore the Beavers' 25-7 in the third capped by Meyers' third triple of the quarter.
A Womsi bucket and Heskamp's third long range splash led a 5-2 Barton spurt in the first minute of the fourth to widen the gap. Only eight more points combined would touch the scoreboard as Barton cruised on to victory.
STATS
The Cougars' 64.3% third quarter shooting shined a bright spot on the 39.6% overall night's performance with the defense clamping down holding Pratt to just 27.3%, including 0-15 from beyond the arc.
Bouncing back from being outrebounded for the first time all season in its last outing, Barton controlled the boards 40-22 including 12-6 on the offensive glass.
Womsi's third straight double-double performance led all players in scoring 15 points and hauling down 7 of her 18 rebounds on the offensive glass. Heskamp finished with 11 points off the bench, Meyers added 9 points and a game high 5 assists, and Acorionna Lard contributed 8 points.
Chariah Daniels was the lone Beaver in double digits, scoring 10 points and flirted with a double-double in grabbing 8 rebounds.