The 22nd ranked Barton Community College women's basketball team put it high gear during Saturday afternoon's hosting of Northwest Kansas Technical College to rout the Mavericks 75-43 to christen the renovated Barton Gym.
Tied at 18 early in the second period, Barton put up 32 points in the quarter to outscore the Mavericks by thirty-two the remaining twenty-nine minutes of the game, holding their ninth straight opponent under fifty-eight points in winning their fourth straight within the series.
Barton improves to 14-2 on the season and in sole possession of second place of the conference standings at 8-2 while NW Tech drops their fourth straight in falling to 1-9 in league and 5-10 overall.
The Cougars will put their five game win streak to the test on Wednesday with a 5:30 p.m. tip at Colby Community College.
Jenny Nkem Womsi's fourth straight and 11th double-double of the year led Barton's eleven players in the scoring column with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Brennan Kirchhoff added 11 points with Mikaela Hall coming off the bench for a team high 4 steals, to go along, with 10 points and 7 rebounds helping Barton to a plus-19 advantage on the boards. Acorionna Lard led the Cougars' 18 assists with 6 while scoring 5 points and two of the team's 13 steals.
Sy Crowley was the lone Maverick in double digits with 21 points, being held to just five points in the final twenty minutes. Sarengbe Sanogo led the rebound effort with eleven.
Barton knocked down 5-of-9 from three-point land in the first half but stroked just one more in second half play finishing 6-of-18 beyond the arc in shooting 48.4% overall from the field.
After beginning the opening ten minutes on 46.7% shooting and a 16-all tie on the scoreboard, Northwest Tech wouldn't shoot any better than 38.5% the remaining three quarters to finish at 33.3%. Canning two of their three triples in the first quarter, the Mavericks were just 3-of-16 overall and added 4-of-8 from the stripe.
Womsi scored six straight bringing Barton back from an early six point deficit to tie it at seven by the midpoint. The Mavericks' hot shooting, including a pair of treys, and the Cougars' ten turnovers despite 60% shooting left the teams tied at 16 after the first quarter.
Morgan Meyers' bucket form Lard's assist opened second period scoring with the Mavericks coming right back to tie it for the final time. From there the Cougars gave the Mavericks a taillight view, rattling off a 17-0 run in the next six minutes to outscore the visitors 32-12 in the period.
Allowing sixteen Northwest Tech points in the first quarter and breaking it open in the second, Barton would only give up 15 total points in the final twenty minutes as all thirteen suited Cougars played minutes in the game.