The Barton Community College women's basketball dropped their Jayhawk Conference opener as Cowley College's strong second half handed the Cougars a 90-73 defeat Saturday night at Scott Auditorium in Arkansas City.
The sixth straight loss to the Tigers in the series slips Barton to 6-2 on the year while Cowley's six straight win on the year improves to 10-1 and a 2-0 start to the Jayhawk season. Barton will next make another long trip to south central Kansas coming up on Wednesday in a 5:30 p.m. tip at Coffeyville Community College (0-1, 0-9).
The Cougars got off to a great start as Ryen White scored the game's first seven points as the Ottawa sophomore would finish with a career and team high seventeen points.
Barton held the lead into the second quarter but Cowley continued their 6-0 spurt through the break to grab the lead 20-19. Mallory Miller's first of two treys in the quarter halted the run as the teams battled back and forth until the Tigers put the final four points on the board to lead 41-37 into the intermission.
A pair of Taylor Regan free throws with 2:11 left in the third quarter cut the deficit to two but then Paige Granstaff took over the next minute with three consecutive long range shots to escalate the situation to an eleven point edge.
A pair of Jaylin Stapleton free throws to end the third period and White's second trey early in the fourth slimmed the gap to six points. The margin hovered around the same margin through the six minute mark but Cowley would methodically pull away with the big win.
Joining White in double-figures was Regan with sixteen and Miller's 4-of-9 from behind the arc added fourteen as Barton would shoot a season low 31.8 from long distance. Regan just missed a double-double with nine rebounds leading Barton to a 36-31 edge on the glass but twenty-five Cougar turnovers to just twelve for Cowley was too much to overcome.
Kedranea Addison's 4-of-6 from beyond the arc led to twenty-seven points with Brenda Da Silva finishing with twenty. Granstaff dropped in sixteen off the bench while Elina Oravakangas rounded out the four Tigers in double figures with twelve.