The 16th ranked Barton Community College women's basketball team erased an early eight point deficit Wednesday on the road to pick up a 79-65 conference opening victory at Garden City Community College.
Off to their best start since 2014, Barton improves to 7-0 on the season in dropping Garden City to 4-3 on the year. The Cougars will have a six-day layoff before Tuesday's welcoming of Cowley College to the Barton Gym for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off.
Acorionna Lard helped lead three other Cougars into double-digits by dishing out a career high 13 assists against just two turnovers as Barton distributed 25 on their 33-made baskets. Lard also contributed 14 points on 7-of-15 shooting, led the team with two steals, and helped Barton to a plus-10 advantage on the glass by grabbing 6 rebounds.
Reigning conference and national player of the week Jenny Nkem Womsi tied Brennan Kirchhoff for team high honors with 15 points, recording her 4th straight double-double by grabbing 10 rebounds. Morgan Meyers drained 3-of-5 beyond the arc for 13 points, dishing out five assists and grabbing 5 rebounds.
Dayshawna Carter led all scorers with 32 points on 12-of-24 shooting with Keyhana Turner adding 10 points as the lone Garden City player reaching double figures. Ariyah Brooks added 9 points and a team leading 7 rebounds while Taya Davis dished out team high honors 8 assists with 7 points.
Barton shot over 60% in each of the second and fourth quarters, finishing at 50.8% percent overall including 45.5% from three point (5-11) and a near perfect 10-of-11 from the free throw line.
Garden City started out hot making six of their first ten shots, finishing at 43.1% overall but just 4-of-15 from beyond the arc and 11-of-17 from the charity stripe.
Meyers connected on her first triple of the night to answer Garden City's ten straight to cut the deficit to 10-5 with 4:42 remaining in the opening quarter. The Cougars still faced a five point gap with 2:06 remaining when Lili Shubert canned her lone triple keying a 7-0 visitor stretch flipping the advantage as Kirchhoff's pair of charity tosses closed out the frame with Barton on top 18-15.
The Busters regained the lead twice in the early stages of the second period, the last being overtaken on a Lard to Womsi's three-point play putting Barton ahead 25-23 at the 7:55 mark. Following a Garden City 1-of-2 trip to the line, the Cougars strung eight straight for a nine point advantage, eventually building it out to thirteen just two minutes later on a 6-0 run led by the bench play from Alissa Heskamp and Grace John.
Enjoying a seven point lead at halftime, the lead grew back to twelve and remained at ten with just under four minutes left until Garden City made a big push making things interesting by rattling off six straight closing to within four.
Racheal Emmanuel's inside bucket was the lone point in the remaining 2:31 sending the teams to the final period with Barton up 56-50.
The six point margin was as close as the game would be the rest of the way as the Cougars won the quarter by eight points behind a mid-quarter 8-0 run over four minutes to seal away the victory and snap the Broncbusters two-game win streak in the series.