Facing a halftime deficit Tuesday evening at the Barton Gym, the 15th ranked Barton Community College women's basketball team cranked up the defense to prevail 53-41 over Cowley College.
The Cougars trailed by four at halftime and as many as six with 4:08 left in the third period, reversing the tide outscoring the Tigers 8-2 the rest of the period tying it up at 38. Rattling off the next fourteen points, nineteen straight stretching across the quarters, Barton held Cowley without a point or field goal for ten minutes until the streak broke on a three-pointer with 1:42 remaining in the contest.
Barton remains unbeaten at 2-0 in conference play and 8-0 on the season while Cowley's tough schedule to open the conference slate drops the Tigers to 0-3 and 5-4 overall.
Following the Thanksgiving break, the Cougars get back to preparation for a Saturday 5:30 p.m. tip at 12th ranked Hutchinson Community College.
Jenny Nkem Womsi had a monster double-double night to lead the Cougars, posting her fifth straight in finishing with 18 points and 20 rebounds. Womsi grabbed 16 of her boards on the defensive end, tying for 4th most in a program single game performance as her total glass cleaning ranked tied for 6th in overall single game boards. Morgan Meyers, who scored ten of Barton's twenty-seven second half points including a step-back triple leading a 5-0 close-out of the third period, tallied 17 points to round out the double-figure scoring.
Brennan Kirchhoff, whose main role and key component of the Cougars' win was on the defensive end guarding Emporia State University commit Baylee Fincher, scored just three points but gave Barton its first lead of the half on a corner pocket three-ball from one of five Acorionna Lard's team leading five assists. Alissa Heskamp added eight points coming on tough runners including a pair helping Barton to a ten point mid-second quarter lead.
The Tigers answered that ten point deficit with a 10-0 run getting five of those from Fincher, then another two off a steal and layup sending Cowley to the halftime break on top 30-26.
Fincher finished with 19 points to lead all scorers, connecting on 3-of-5 from long range and coming up with 8 steals resulting in four of her points in transition. N'dack Mbengue was next on the scoring list with 7 points and grabbing a team high 9 rebounds.
Barton grabbed eleven offensive rebounds on the night, four by Womsi, resulting in a plus-12 in second chance points and a plus-15 edge on the glass to outrebound their seventh straight opponent.