The Barton Community College women's basketball team opened the 2022 portion of the schedule Wednesday night at the Barton Gym with an 87-82 win over Seward County Community College.
Led by the career high night from Jenny Nkem Womsi, the Cougars put the first ten points on the board in leading wire-to-wire but needed a pivotal Morgan Meyers' three pointer to hold off Seward County in picking up their second straight home victory over the Saints.
Barton improves to 4-5 in conference play and 7-8 on the season, securing Head Coach Alan Clark's 102nd victory at the helm in tying Don Calvert for second most wins guiding the program.
Seward County drops to 6-4 in league and 10-6 overall.
The Cougars make the trip northwest for their next contest on Saturday in a 6:30 p.m. (Central Time) tip-off at Northwest Kansas Technical College.
Womsi scored eight of the Cougars initial ten points on the way to scoring 24 points, sinking 12-of-16 from the free throw line, and pulled down nine of her 24 rebounds from the offensive glass in posting her fifth straight double-double. The bag of boards also recorded the second most single game rebounds in program history, nearly matching the record 25 boards set by Taylor Regan in the '18-19 season.
As a team, the Cougars set a new program game record with 51 free throw attempts, making 39 (76.5%) for the second most made charity tosses in a single contest.
Lili Shubert just missed her first collegiate double-double, hauling down nine rebounds and scoring 11 of her 14 points in second half action. Acorionna Lard went 4-of-4 from the line in the critical last minutes in sinking 9-of-12 overall to also add 14 points to compliment two steals. Meyers dished out a team high four assists, adding 13 points on 7-of-8 free throw shooting and a huge shot clock beating three-pointer late in the contest keeping Barton in the lead.
A pair of Saints eclipsed the twenty point plateau, Sierra Lynch leading with 23 points in sinking 13-of-14 free throws and D'Arrah Allen adding 21 points by knocking down 4-of-9 from beyond the arc. Jailyn Johnson led in rebounding with eight while adding 12 points, Halima Salat contributed 11 points, and Sydney Wetlaufer added 10 points.
The Saints had a nine point advantage from long range shooting but the Cougars made up the difference with a plus-26 rebound edge and getting to the free throw line for 28 more attempts as Seward County committed 33 of the game's 54 fouls called.
RECAP
Twenty-four seconds into the contest Womsi grabbed her own miss to score the rebound as Barton would lead the rest of the contest in jumping out to a 10-0 score. Following a pair of Saints' triples, the Cougars went on a 7-0 spurt to stretch the lead for an eventual seven point margin after the opening ten minutes.
Action settled in for the second quarter, the Saints chipping away at the gap including a 7-0 run drawing to within 28-27 with 4:31 left in the half. Brennan Kirchhoff answered the call in burying a trey with Lard knocking down a bucket on the next possession pushing the margin back out to six. Lard's three-pointer late in the frame expanded it to eight but the Saints scored the final four sending the teams to the break at 38-35.
Shubert's three points led Barton out of the locker room with a 5-0 spurt, later adding another three points sparking a 7-0 run stretching the lead out in six minutes. Following a Saint free throw, Meyers buried a trey giving Barton its largest lead of 15 with 3:47 left in the quarter. The Saints responded in closing out the frame outscoring the Cougars 14-6 slicing the gap to seven heading to the fourth.
Five straight cut the margin to five in completing the big Saint stretch, setting up the final eight minutes of nip-n-tuck action. The Cougars held the lead throughout but faced a critical junction with 1:18 remaining as Meyers' drained a three-pointer off an inbound pass with one second left on the shot clock giving Barton a four point cushion. Meyers and Cord then combined for 9-of-10 free throws in the final forty-four seconds in sealing the win.