The Barton Community College women's basketball team won their third straight game for the first time of the season, picking up a 73-59 victory over Colby Community College Wednesday night at the Barton Gym.
Barton was ahead or tied on the scoreboard for all but eleven seconds in building a double digit lead early in the fourth in grinding out their third straight victory of the series.
The Cougars improve to 6-5 in conference play and 9-8 overall to climb above .500 for the first time since mid-November while Colby slides to 2-8 in league and 5-10 on the season.
A pair of road trips in three days are due up for the Cougars beginning Saturday with a 1:00 p.m. tip at Dodge City Community College followed by Monday's 5:30 p.m. start at Garden City Community College. Barton's next home contest comes Saturday, January 22, in a 2:00 p.m. hosting of Cowley College.
Due to health and safety protocols, the evening's men's contest hosting Colby was postponed with a make-up date still undetermined.
Morgan Meyers, who was one of three different Cougars to drain a three pointer in the opening four minutes, led with a game high 16 points including 9-of-11 from the free throw line. Getting the night's scoring started with a triple, Brennan Kirchhoff contributed 15 points and 7 rebounds as Mikaela Hall come off the bench with a 10 point and 5 rebound night. Reigning KJCCC and NJCAA Player of the Week Jenny Nkem Womsi had her streak of six straight double-doubles end as her twenty-two minutes of court time generated 7 points and 8 rebounds.
Despite a season high 28 turnovers, the Cougars connected on 51.2% from the field for their second straight 50% or better shooting performance after making a season best 63.2% last time on the court. Colby took advantage of the turnovers to outscore Barton 23-9 but could only make 27.3% of their shots.
Kiarra Henderson scored seven of her team high 12 points in the first quarter to lead Colby while Katelyn Alatini added 11 points and Zoe Wiltz contributing 9 points.
RECAP
Barton's first three buckets came behind the arc on Kirchhoff, Meyers, and Lili Shubert deep splashes putting the Cougars out early 9-2. Colby fired back with the next eight to take their first lead, jumping ahead again after Shubert's second trey, then grabbed their final lead after Meyers' bucket at 15-14 with 2:48 left in the opening quarter. Trading buckets the rest of the frame, Kirchhoff's late layup from Hall's dish gave Barton a 22-20 advantage to end the quarter.
Both teams struggled through the second frame's first five minutes, combining for ten turnovers and six total points for the final tie of the contest coming at 24 with 4:46 left. The Cougars then broke it open with seven straight, getting five from Meyers including converting an And-1 for her 10th point of the half and a Hall tough short jumper. Colby scored the next four but the Cougars countered with a 5-2 stretch in the final two minutes for a 36-30 lead to the break.
Womsi broke into the scoring column with four straight points to widen the gap with Dayjsha Fanning contributing four straight later giving Barton its then largest lead of ten at 44-34 to the 4:29 media timeout. The Trojans then went on a 5-0 run but the Cougars held off the surge outscoring Colby 6-3 the rest of the quarter for a 50-42 edge.
Hall's steal and layup opened up the final frame as a Womsi 1-of-2 trip to the line pushed the gap to 11 finishing off Barton's 7-0 stretch across the two quarters. Colby scored the next six in closing to within five with 6:02 left but it would be as close as they would come. A pair of Womsi charity tosses, Acorionna Lard's three-pointer, Kirchhoff's layup, and Fanning's 1-of-2 trip to the line provided a 7-0 response in two minutes in quickly pushing the margin to 13. The game's largest gap came at 14 twice following a pair of perfect charity tosses from Meyers as the Cougars went 7-of-8 from the line in the final minute of play.