20th ranked Cougars' rally pays off for 67-65 overtime victory at Independence #GoBarton

Trailing by eighteen in the second quarter Wednesday on the road, the 20th ranked Barton Community College women's basketball team had a second half gut check to rally for a 67-65 overtime victory at Independence Community College.

Following a season low first quarter and halftime production, the Cougars put together a 16-0 run in the third quarter but later needed a Morgan Meyers 37-foot three-pointer with 8.3 seconds in regulation to tie it up. Getting to overtime, the Cougars scored the first four points for their first lead since the night's opening bucket, traded points with the Pirates throughout the extra frame until Mikaela Hall's offensive rebound and subsequent eight foot jumper provided the game winner with 1.8 seconds remaining.

Snapping a four game losing streak in Independence dating back to its 2017 win, also in overtime, Barton improves to 12-4 in league and 18-4 overall. Independence's two game win streak ends to drop the Pirates to 7-10 in conference and 11-12 on the season.

Next up is another big conference game as Barton tries to hold on to their 3rd place standing hosting Coffeyville Community College at 2:00 p.m. Saturday. The Red Ravens, who beat the Cougars 59-50 back in December on their home floor, slipped to 5th place of the conference standings at 11-6 and 15-8 overall following Wednesday's 68-56 loss at 21st ranked Butler Community College.

Hauling down double figure rebounds for the 20th time this year, Jenny Nkem Womsi also added 17 points to go along with 19 rebounds in posting her 16th double-double performance of the season. Hall scored 16 points and 7 rebounds among her heroics, while Acorionna Lard and Brennan Kirchhoff added 10 points each. Meyers' game tying regulation triple was one of three made in second half action in finishing with 9 points.

Valentina Ojeda led just two Pirates in double figures with 18 points with Miah Lowman following with a double-double performance of 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Hall scored the evening's first two points with Independence surging ahead on five straight including the first of their four three-pointers of the quarter in going on to a build a 15-9 lead.

Tying their season low quarter output of nine, things didn't get much better for Barton to begin the second frame as back-to-back treys put Barton in a 21-6 hole just two minutes in. Lard's bucket ended the Pirates' 10-0 run across the quarters but Independence canned their then-seventh triple starting an 8-0 run to balloon the margin to its highest of eighteen at the mid-point.

Grace John's three-point answer halted the spurt with Hall following with an And-1 to slice the deficit but it was all Barton could put on the board in the final 1:50 resulting in their lowest halftime production of the season to trail 31-17.

Drilling seven behind the arc in the first half, Independence took it inside on the Cougars early third quarter as a pair of offensive rebounds led to points before their 8th three-pointer, a kiss off the glass from a baseline launched triple, pushed the gap back to seventeen at 38-21.

The remaining six minutes was all Barton from that point, Womsi went to work inside while Meyers and Kirchhoff did damage from the outside in leading a 16-0 close out of the quarter drawing Barton to within 38-37.

Independence seemed to hold off the charge by scoring the first five of the final quarter including their 9th trey but Barton fired back with a 9-4 stretch closing back to within one with 4:24 remaining.

Another 5-0 Independence run capped by their 10th trey pushed the gap back to six, a margin they held a minute later at 54-48 with just 2:08 left.

Meyers canned a triple on Barton's next possession and following a Pirate empty trip to the line, Kirchhoff tacked on a pair of charity tosses making it a one point game.

With a ten second game/shot clock difference, Barton elected to foul early, sending a 55% shooter Blesseth Dillingham to line where she calmly sank both with 27 seconds remaining.

The Cougars' last attempt seemed to be going nowhere but Meyers stepped up to can a deep trey from the volleyball spike line to tie it up with just 8.3 seconds remaining. Independence called timeout to advance the ball, working the offense for a dribble drive kick-out but the open look three-pointer rimmed out at the buzzer.

Barton scored the first four points of overtime, Womsi's opening bucket giving Barton its first lead since 2-0 as Lard followed with a jumper putting Barton up 60-56.

Both teams pounded the offensive glass through the next three minutes in trading trips to the free throw line, Independence working to take the lead with 51 seconds on the squad's 12 three-pointer. Fourteen seconds later Lard found Womsi on the low block for the game's fourth tie leaving the Pirates the final 35 seconds to produce a game winner.

A missed triple with 23 seconds left and Womsi's 19th rebound turned the action back to the Cougars' end. Running the clock down, Kirchhoff's baseline triple in the waning seconds rimmed out but Hall's hustle to secure the board and heads up play to immediately square up for the eight foot jumper swished the game winner.

Advancing the ball on a timeout, Independence's last 1.8 seconds was unable to produce one more long range shot leaving Barton escaping town on the victory.