The Barton Community College women's basketball team received a big night's production off the bench helping the Cougars to an 83-65 quarterfinal victory Wednesday over Cowley College.
Mikaela Hall's career high 24 points led the Cougars but a twenty-nine combined bench effort from Lili Shubert and Alissa Heskamp sparked the Cougars throughout the night. Leading by seventeen at the halftime break, the deficit only dipped below ten once, that coming early in the fourth frame but eleven seconds later Brennan Kirchhoff canned her lone triple of the game as it was as close as Cowley would come the rest of the way as the margin stretch to twenty late in the contest.
The victory improves Barton to 19-12 on the year, advancing the Cougars to the Region VI semifinals for the fourth straight year where they will take on Independence Community College in the 1:00 p.m. contest at Salina's Tony's Pizza Event Center in a rematch of the 2021 Championship game.
Hall's big night came on 10-of-15 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 from the stripe while coming up with a pair of steals and rebounds. Shubert buried a pair of treys in the opening quarter, finishing 3-of-6 from deep in scoring 17 points, grabbed 7 rebounds, dished out 3 assists and came up with one of the Cougars' eight steals. Heskamp buried her two treys sparking Barton's second quarter, finishing with 12 points and 3 offensive rebounds, 2 assists, and one steal. Acorionna Lard joined Hall as the only other starter in double figures with 11 points, leading the team with 6 assists and 3 steals and grabbed 4 rebounds.
Barton shot a season second best 55.0% for the game including a sizzling 76.9% (10-of-13) in the fourth quarter, sank a near perfect 10-of-11 from the stripe, and 7-of-17 (41.%) from beyond the arc including Kirchhoff's trey with seven minutes left to hold off the Tigers' comeback.
Despite reigning KJCCC player of the week Jenny Nkem Womsi only having twelve minutes of court time and contributing just 6 points and one rebound due to foul problems, the Cougars had a plus-16 advantage in the paint including a 33-28 rebound edge to outrebound the opponent for the 25th time of the year.
The Barton defense helped hold Cowley to just 39%, just 6-of-21 from beyond arc, including holding the Tigers' pair of leading scorers Baylee Fincher and Martyna Kowalska to a combined 8-of-26 shooting and 19 points.
Carson Dean led the Tigers tying a career high 21 points going 7-of-11 from the field including 4-of-7 beyond the arc. Kowalska finished below her average with 12 points and a team high 7 rebounds as Shamara Henderson added 11 points. Hounded by Kirchhoff all night, Fincher managed just 7 points, eight below her region second best game average.
RECAP
The Cougars never trailed on the night, scoring the first four points on Hall and Morgan Meyers' jumpers. Cowley managed to tie it up twice, the first coming with four straight to answer Barton's opening buckets and again at the 4:31 media timeout following Henderson's old fashioned three point play.
Both times Cowley tied it up, Shubert had the answer coming off the bench to spark the Cougars with eight first period points. Tied at 4, Shubert drained a triple then launched again from downtown putting Barton up for good at the 4:20 mark.
Barton led by six into the second frame, tacking on five straight from Hall's And-1 from Heskamp's assist before Shubert's bucket from Meyers pushed the gap to eleven.
Shubert sparked the Cougars in the first quarter, Heskamp was the microwave in the second hitting consecutive three pointers then tacking on a jumper for the personal 8-0 spurt giving Barton its then largest lead of 17 with 6:02 left.
Four straight by the Tigers cut the deficit but just as quick, Meyers and Hall provided the answer. Cowley looked to close out the half with momentum in scoring another four straight but Meyers' runner in the lane late in the half gave the Cougars a fourteen point edge.
Shooting just 34.5% in the first half, Cowley shot much better to begin the third quarter in making half of their first six shots and sinking 5-of-7 from the free throw line through the first five minutes.
The Barton lead shrunk to ten early in the quarter before consecutive Womsi tough inside plays and a pair of Shubert charity tosses stretched it back out. The Cougars' margin hovered around the fourteen point margin until late in the quarter as Cowley closed out with the final four to cut the deficit to ten.
Lard and Shubert helped keep the gap comfortable until Milena Fromming's lone triple cutting it down to nine points with 7:11 left was answered eleven seconds later by Kirchhoff's lone distance twine tickler.
A steal by Shubert on the next Tiger possession and finding Lard for lone trey would push the margin to fifteen in putting a big damper on Cowley's spirit.
As Womsi fouled out with 5:54 left on a made Tiger basket, Hall went to work inside for a pair of buckets while Lard found a back cutting Kirchhoff for a layup ballooning the lead to nineteen.
Barton reached its largest lead of twenty with 1:59 left following Hall's pair of free throws as Cowley scored the final bucket at the buzzer after a last second steal under the bucket.