The Barton Community College women's basketball team shook off a slow start Wednesday night at the Barton Gym to conclude the regular season with a 60-54 victory over Dodge City Community College.
Barton trailed 8-0 in the first three minutes, by thirteen at the halftime break, and as much as fifteen points early in the third quarter before kicking it into another gear. Rattling off nineteen straight points and holding Dodge City without a field goal for eight minutes of the frame, Barton totally flipped the game to build a seven point fourth quarter lead in holding off the Conquistadors for the program's 1000th victory in 45 years of competition.
Winners of three straight, the Cougars improved to 18-12 on the season but more importantly secured the fourth spot in the conference standings at 15-9 in earning a first round bye of the Region VI Tournament. Barton will now await the victor of the 5th seeded Cowley hosting 12th seeded Pratt, hosting the result with a Tuesday 6:00 p.m. tip-off.
Dodge City sees their three game win streak end, dropping to a seventh place 13-11 and 18-12 overall record. The Conquistadors begin region play on Saturday hosting 10th seed Cloud County.
Morgan Meyers canned a pair of her four three pointers and nine of her game high 21 points in Barton's game changing run in leading four Cougars in double-digits. Jenny Nkem Womsi posted her 13th double-double of the year by shooting 70% from the floor for 14 points and hauling down a game high 11 rebounds. Acorionna Lard added 13 points, compiling another solid all-around game of team highs 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals, and 3 blocks with just a pair of turnovers. Mikaela Hall rounded out the double digit scoring with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting and 4 rebounds and 2 blocks.
The Cougars made just two of their first fourteen shots (14.3%) in the opening frame but heated up to 59% in second half play for a 37.9% overall night. Barton managed to add just one three pointer to Meyers' total, Lard's big third quarter trey keeping Barton on top after Dodge cut the deficit to one, as the Cougars were just 5-21 (23.8%) from beyond the arc.
Barton led in 38-34 in work on the glass, outrebounding their opponent for the 24th time of the season to have a plus-10 point advantage in the paint.
Jada Burton led the Conquistadors with 16 points, scoring 11 of those in the first half, while also matching Lard for game high honors on five assists. Bree Stephens scored twelve second half points to finish at 15 points and 7 rebounds with Krystina Hagood leading with 8 rebounds to go along with 11 points.
Dodge City's 39.6% outshot the Cougars, including 7-of-24 from deep but sank just 5-of-12 from the free throw line and had three additional turnovers.
RECAP
The Conquistadors blitzed the Cougars early, canning a pair of treys to begin their 8-0 start to the game. Hall's four points would bring Barton to within 10-4 but the Conquistadors tacked on another five straight including their third trey of the quarter. Womsi closed out first frame scoring with a bucket drawing the Cougars to within 15-6.
Dodge City's lead grew with the first three points of the second frame before Womsi's basket and Meyers' try cut the deficit to seven. Another Womsi buck would again close the gap to seven before Dodge City closed out the quarter on an 8-2 stretch including Bree Stephens' sideline triple late giving the Conquistadors their largest lead of thirteen, 28-15 into halftime.
Both teams didn't shoot well, Dodge City at 37.9% but for a team averaging just seven three pointers in a game, canned 5-of-14 from beyond the arc providing a twelve point advantage from deep. Barton started out cold and stayed cold, missing their first three shots on the way to a 2-for-14 first quarter and 19.14% for the first twenty minutes including a 1-of-11 iceberg from three-point land.
Following Dodge City's first of just two field goals in the third quarter, Barton put the next nineteen points on the board while holding the Conquistadors scoreless for eight minutes. Meyers' nine points highlighted the stretch but the strong inside play of Hall and Womsi set the tone in the paint.
Fourth quarter action was a slugfest starting with Dodge City's 8-2 stretch claiming its last lead at 40-38 with 7:53 remaining. Hall's inside bucket twenty seconds later tied it up with Meyers' triple putting Barton back in front for the final time. The teams traded points including Lard knocking down a trey with Dodge City's Georgia Hall answering back from deep, as Barton would lead by two with 4:37 left.
The Cougars strung together another pivotal stretch, Lard scoring four points including coming up with a pair of steals, the last dishing to Womsi for a layup concluding a 6-1 spurt giving Barton its largest lead of seven at 52-45 with 2:57 remaining.
Lard would again come up big under a minute to play, banking in a tough twelve foot jumper with the shot clock winding down proving to be the difference maker pushing the gap back to five with 41 seconds left. Meyers' sank a perfect four charity tosses down the stretch and for the second straight game, Brennan Kirchhoff entered the scoring column late in the contest to put the final two points on the board from the stripe with four seconds remaining.