18th ranked Cougars pull away for 77-50 win at Pratt #GoBarton

The 18th ranked Barton Community College women's basketball team expanded their five point halftime lead Saturday afternoon to a twenty-seven point victory at the Beaver Dome in routing Pratt Community College 77-50.

The Cougars led by twenty after the first period horn only to go silent for six minutes of the second frame leading a Pratt 17-0 run in closing the gap. Leading by five at the break, the Cougars tacked on nine more to their lead in the third before holding Pratt to below ten points in a period for the second time of the afternoon in rolling out to its ninth straight win of the series.

Winners of five straight, Barton improves to 15-4 in the conference standings and 21-4 overall while Pratt slides to 6-13 in league and 11-13 on the season.

A battle for second place of the Jayhawk looms next on the slate as Barton welcomes 19th ranked Butler Community College to the Barton Gym for Wednesday's "Pink Out Night". Tip-off time slated for 5:30 p.m. as the Grizzlies hold a half game lead of the Cougars at 16-4 and an identical 21-4 overall mark. Barton won the first battle 62-54 in El Dorado to wind up the fall portion of the schedule.

Acorionna Lard led the Cougars with 17 points and an all-around floor game of 5 rebounds and 5 assists.

Posting her 19th double-double of the year, Jenny Nkem Womsi put up 16 points with 13 rebounds with Morgan Meyers dropping a pair of long range shots leading to an 11 point afternoon.

Mikaela Hall came off the bench to pour in 10 points in seven minutes, grabbing 4 rebounds with Alissa Heskamp grabbing 6 helping the Cougars to a plus-27 advantage on the boards.

Princess Anderson led the Beavers with 17 points, 13 coming in first half play as the nation's scoring leader was held to just four late second half points. Macy Hazlick added 12 points and a team high 6 rebounds while Isis Sanders contributed 11 points.

The Cougars were blowing Pratt out of the gym in the first quarter, leading by twenty when the smoke cleared. Four different players led Barton to an 8-0 lead then following a pair of Pratt free throws to end the drought at the 6:19 mark, tacked on another five as Hall entered the scoring column to become the fifth player to score in the opening five minutes.

Pratt made just two field goals in the opening period, the first making the score 13-5 before Barton went on a 12-0 run opening up its first twenty-point margin. Hall began the stretch with a jumper, followed by Quezia Bertoni's first attempt and made shot beyond the arc on the season, and consecutive McKenna Vogl baskets before Meyers' triple capped the stretch. The Beavers got the second basket with 42 seconds left but Lard's jumper fifteen seconds later pushed the period's final to 27-7.

Pratt knocked down a trey to open second period action with Womsi's inside bucket answering on the Cougars' end. Barton would then go silent for the next six minutes while Pratt went on a tear drawing to within 29-27. Shooting just 18.8% percent in the opening frame, the Beavers strung seven straight shots together including draining four more beyond the arc in rattling off 17 straight points.

Lard's jumper with 2:54 ended the drought with the teams battling the remaining minutes to a 36-31 Barton halftime lead.

Hall's four straight and Lard's jumper helped Barton open up a ten point gap as the Cougars would outscore the Beavers by nine in the period to lead 55-41.

A 12-1 stretch to the midpoint of the final frame pushed the margin to twenty-three before outscoring the Beavers 10-2 in the final three minutes capping the twenty-seven point victory.

Game Notes:
Jenny Nkem Womsi's 13 rebounds is the 22nd straight game of double figure rebounds and the 23rd of the 25 games played; Has scored in double-figures seven straight games and has reached ten or more points in 21 of the games

Record Book Watch and Impacts:
Brennan Kirchhoff: Tied for 5th in made career three-pointers (102 *25 from Kristine Silaraja' 2007-09 total)
Morgan Meyers: Tied for 5th in made career three-pointers (102 *25 from Kristine Silaraja' 2007-09 total)
Jenny Nkem Womsi:
- 6th in single season rebounds (330 *7 from Sheila Hubert's 337 during 1983-84 season)
- 5th in single season defensive rebounds (237 *2 from Beth Lebsack's 239 during 1981-82 season and 3 from Taylor Regan's 240 during 2017-18 season)
- 5th in career rebounds (624 *2 from Wendy Okeson's 626 total during 1998-00 seasons, 8 from Shelia Hubert's 632 total during 1982-84 seasons)