The Barton Community College women's basketball team bounce back from having a four-game win streak snapped its last time on the court by leading a majority of Saturday's matinee at the Barton Gym with an 81-61 victory over Cowley College.
Leading by seven after the first quarter, the Cougars put together a 20-5 stretch to close out first half action and never looked back to break Cowley's eight game win streak on the Barton floor.
Barton improves to 8-6 in conference and 11-9 overall while Cowley drops to 7-6 in league and 11-7 on the year.
The Cougars' next contest comes Wednesday at nationally receiving votes Hutchinson Community College for a 5:30 p.m. tip at the Sports Arena.
Brennan Kirchhoff's career high 19 points led four Cougars in double-digit scoring, eclipsing her personal best of 15 points with 2:18 left in the first half by burying a trey giving Barton its first double-digit lead of the game.
Acorionna Lard was close behind with 15 points in leading the Cougars with 6 assists and 3 steals. Jenny Nkem Womsi added 13 points and 11 rebounds in posting her second straight and 8th double-double of the year while Morgan Meyers finished with 10 points. Dayjsha Fanning corralled 10 rebounds with Kirchhoff grabbing 7 as the Cougars led the rebounds 47-32.
Milena Fromming led the Tigers with 12 points with Carson Dean adding 10 points. Martyna Kowalska led the squad in rebounds with 10, to go along with, 8 points.
RECAP
Kirchhoff struck early for the Cougars on a personal 5-0 spurt in knocking down the first of her three treys in the game erasing an opening Cowley bucket into a Barton 7-2 lead. Consecutive treys by Lard and Kirchhoff expanded the lead to seven with two minutes remaining as a Tiger basket later, Lili Shubert's steal and feed to Kirchhoff for her 12th point of the frame put Barton up 19-12.
Kirchhoff opening the second quarter with a layup from Womsi's dime but Cowley would go on an 11-0 run behind three consecutive treys in taking the lead at 23-21 with 6:23 left. Lard then put the Cougars in front for good two minutes later, scoring inside from a Kirchhoff dish then canning her second triple of the game. Meyers followed with her own long distance snipe on the next Barton possession with Womsi scoring on the next opportunity completing a 9-0 spurt in ninety-seconds. From there Cowley would score just five points in the final three minutes as Barton would add 11 more including treys from Kirchhoff and Meyers' splash with four seconds left sending the Cougars to the halftime break up 41-28.
Both teams went chilly in the third frame, Barton shooting just 38% while the Tigers' were an even worse 30%. Despite shooting woes, the Cougars were able to keep Cowley from drawing any closer than 12 points before Shubert's three-pointer and Mikaela Hall's jumper quickly pushed the margin back out as Barton would eventually lead by 17 points to the final quarter.
Barton stretched the gap out to 23 points mid-way through the final frame on a 5-0 spurt, eclipsing the 20-point margin a trio of times in final four minutes coming on Britney Schroer's And-1 conversion, Cora Anderson's jumper, and a pair of Alissa Heskamp free throws.