A slow start would doom the 17th ranked Barton Community College women's basketball team Saturday afternoon on the road as Coffeyville Community College held off the Cougars' fourth quarter charge for a 59-50 victory.
The loss drops Barton to 3-2 in conference and 9-2 overall while Coffeyville improves to 5-1 in league and 9-3 on the year.
The Cougars wind up its tough two-game road swing on Wednesday in a 6:00 p.m. tilt at Cloud County Community College as the T-Birds will be coming off a disappointing Saturday loss at Pratt Community College to enter the contest at 4-1 in the Jayhawk and 9-2 overall.
It took Barton over five minutes to get on the board after Coffeyville grabbed the first eight points of the afternoon. Leading by seven at the quarter, Coffeyville buried their fifth three-pointer before adding another bucket to go up by twelve. Jenny Nkem Womsi's inside hoop and Grace John's first collegiate three-pointer drew the Cougars back to within three but a 6-1 Red Raven stretch pushed the gap back to double-digits. Following Alissa Heskamp's fourth point of the first half, Coffeyville went on an 8-0 run pushing its lead to its largest of eighteen with Barton taking the final four points of the quarter for a 37-22 deficit.
Barton shot just 24% in the opening twenty minutes, including 2-13 from behind the arc while Coffeyville connected on 62% of their shots including 5-7 from deep.
Coffeyville increased the lead to seventeen coming out of the locker room on a pair of free throws, led by as many as nineteen points late in the period before Meyers and Womsi buckets drew the Cougars back to the fifteen point deficit it faced to begin the quarter.
Barton finally made its run in the final frame, Brennan Kirchhoff's trey opening up the period with another eight straight to follow after a Red Ravens' bucket to cut the deficit to six at 50-44 by the midpoint.
The Cougars had a chance to cut the deficit even further but a turnover and another turnover from an offensive foul spoiled the bid as Coffeyville would take the next seven points pushing the margin into double figures. Kirchhoff's trey and a late Morgan Meyers triple was not enough down the stretch as Barton's two-game win streak at Nellis Hall came to an end.
Kirchhoff and Meyers led the Cougars with 10 points each while Womsi just missed her 8th double-double by scoring 8 points to go along with 19 rebounds to help Barton come out on top of the board chart by a mere one rebound edge.
Coffeyville's Kennady Roach led all players with 21 points.
Barton shot just 26% on the afternoon including 5-of-24 from beyond the arc and 11-of-14 in free throws. Coffeyville meanwhile shot 44%, 6-of-13 from deep, and 11-18 charity stripe shooting.