The Barton Community College women's basketball team scored the first nine points Friday to begin the second half of the season and never looked back in rolling 101-27 over Ellsworth Community College to open the Polo Bar & Grill/Blue Dragon Holiday Classic held at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
In addition to forty-nine first half points, the Cougars held an undermanned Ellsworth roster of just six players to only seven points in the first twenty minutes in chalking up their fourth straight win of the season while the Panthers drop to 0-14.
Improving to 10-2 overall, Barton's next action will come at 1:00 p.m. Saturday in day two of the Classic by taking on Iowa Western Community College. The Reivers dropped Friday's evening contest 71-50 to host No. 6 ranked Hutchinson Community College in falling to 8-7 on the year.
Coming off a near career high thirty-three points the last time the Cougars were on the hardwood December 10, Mallory Miller knocked down her first two long range shots with Taylor Nichols capping the final four points of the opening frame for a 22-7 lead.
Richelle Turney began the second frame with the first of her six points in the quarter as Barton would hold Ellsworth scoreless. Ryen White also added six points in the quarter with Miller knocking down three more treys, including the final six points of the Cougars' 31-0 scoring run to lead at the halftime break 49-7.
An Ellsworth three-pointer following White and Irene Chukwudi buckets to open the third quarter halted Barton's run at thirty-five straight points. Fatou Ndao entered the scoring column late in the frame with six straight points as the teams battled to a 21-14 scoring quarter growing Barton's lead to 70-21.
Two career high scoring outputs were touched upon by reserves Jade Phillips matching her collegiate debut and Paige Talbott resetting her mark with five and four points respectively. Also getting hot in the final quarter was Conner Keith in draining three triples including the final 101th Barton point with nineteen seconds remaining.
Miller led just three Cougars in the double-digit scoring column as all fourteen players scored at least two points while playing ten or more minutes each. The reigning KJCCC player of the week followed her six long range shots in the Cougars' previous outing to finish 5-of-7 beyond the arc for fifteen points in twenty minutes of court time.
Keith's perfect three shots from downtown led to an eleven point night with Chukwudi dropping in ten in fifteen minutes to go along with seven rebounds and two blocked shots.
Nichols flirted with a collegiate first double-double in hauling down a career high eight rebounds to go along with eight points. Jaylin Stapleton dished out six assists in sixteen minutes to lead the Cougars' thirty-two assists on forty-one field goals.