Behind five three pointers in the final period Wednesday night at the Barton Gym, the Barton Community College women's basketball team remained unbeaten in conference play with a 73-66 victory over Garden City Community College. Snapping a five game home losing streak to Garden City, Barton improves to 2-0 in the Jayhawk and 4-1 on the season while the Broncbusters drop to 1-1 in conference play and 3-2 on the year. Barton will next head to El Dorado on Saturday for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off at Butler Community College.
Jalisa Jones scored four of her nine points in the opening three minutes giving Barton an early four point lead. Monica Barefield's lone trey of the night helped spark an 8-0 run flipping the advantage back to the home team. The teams traded four point runs before alternated jumpers in the lane ended the quarter with Garden City on the top side of a 16-12 score.
The Cougars made an early run in the second frame at the free throw line with Anterrika Lewis going 1-of-2 and after before fouled on a three point attempt, Regan Unruh connected on three straight drawing Barton to within 17-16. The Broncbusters would extend their lead back out to three twice more before the Lady Cougars went on an 11-3 streak with Katrina Roenfeldt knocking down one of her three long balls on the night being joined by Willis' lone trey capping the run for a 29-24 Barton lead. Kavita Akula drained one of Garden City's three treys on the night keeping the Broncbusters close at the half with Barton owning a slim 32-30 lead.
In a toe-to-toe third quarter, the difference came in the final 2:30 of the frame as Leon'Dra Hawkins scored four of her five points on the night for a two point lead. Having a chance to extend the lead to four in the final seconds, Akula's jumper missed its mark with Willis snaring the rebound and driving coast-to-coast to beat the horn tying the contest at 48 each.
Just 2-of-10 from beyond the arc headed to the fourth, the Lady Cougars were perfect in the final quarter knocking down all five attempts. Roenfeldt knocked down the first of her two followed by Regan Unruh burying the first of her three one minute later giving Barton a 54-52 lead. The Broncbusters answered with four straight to regain the lead but Roenfeldt and Unruh again connected from long range with Baylee Robinson's jumper capping Barton's 8-2 run for a four point lead with 3:38 to play. Akula responded with a trey of her own drawing Garden City to within one before Unruh's personal six-point run including another long range bomb gave the Lady Cougars a 68-61 lead with just forty-three ticks on the clock. Barton sealed the victory from the charity stripe sinking 5-of-6 for its first home win over the Broncbusters since the 2011 season.
With her 3-of-5 from long range and 7-of-9 from the free throw line, Unruh lead Barton in scoring with eighteen points. Willis added six to her nine first half points to finished with fifteen points while hauling down eleven rebounds for the Memphis freshman's first collegiate double-double. Roenfeldt also contributed fifteen points going 3-of-6 from beyond the arc and 4-of-6 from the charity stripe while tying Jones and Willis for the team lead in steals with three each. Megan Jirak, who led Barton in rebounding last season, had her best game of the year on the boards reaching double-digits with ten in combining with Willis for nine of Barton's fifteen offensive boards.
DeRae Lewis led Garden City posting a nineteen point and ten rebound double-double performance while Tionnia McKee added fourteen. Akula, who buried 8-of-11 from beyond the arc last season in Garden City's win at the Barton Gym and 4-of-5 in the Busters' home win, was held in check only able to get off three shots from beyond the arc finishing with six points.
Garden City outshot the Lady Cougars 44% to 36% from the field, with most made shots coming within the paint leading to a fourteen point edge but was held to just 3-of-14 from long range. Barton had a slight rebound edge of one gaining a 17-5 advantage on second chance points while also taking care of the ball with twelve turnovers and forcing twenty Garden City miscues including twelve coming on steals.