Overcoming a slow start Saturday at the Barton Gym, the Barton Community College women's basketball team recovered with big second and fourth quarters to pull away in an 83-74 victory over Garden City Community College.
The victory snapped a two-game slide improving Barton 8-5 in conference play and 15-7 overall while Garden City drops to 6-8 and 11-12 on the year. The Cougars conclude its three-game home stand on Monday in a make-up game against Allen County Community College tipping off at 5:30 p.m.
The Cougars dug a ten point first quarter hole behind seven turnovers and eight fouls resulting in the Broncbusters going to the line converting for seven points.
Garden City widening the gap to twelve with the first bucket of the second quarter but Barton owned the next seven minutes to flip the scoreboard. Getting bench contributions of five points from Taylor Nichols and six from D'Shonda Hunt, the Cougars' 15-0 run led to a three point lead with 2:51 left. Barton's lead grew by one to the lead at the halftime break as the Cougars buried three of their ten three-pointers on the night getting a pair from Mallory Miller and Madison Dirks' trey off the bench.
The Broncbusters' Talia Roberts scored fifteen points in the third quarter in a foul plagued ten minutes putting Garden City out in front with 3:23 left before a final pair of free throws late in the frame helped to outscore the Cougars by eight for a four point lead.
A 7-0 start to the fourth put Barton back in front until the 3:43 mark when Roberts canned a trey for the final of her team leading 26th point of the evening. Barton answered the call with nine straight of their own including a Conner Keith three-pointer to get the margin to four. Jaleah Bellany's long range shot cut it to four with a minute remaining but the Cougars sealed the victory at the free throw line with five of six charity tosses.
A career night twenty-six point performance from Regan led the Cougars as the reigning two-time KJCCC player of the week was a near perfect 10-of-11 from the stripe while hauling down four of her seven rebounds from the offensive glass. Miller's 4-of-7 from beyond the arc contributed twelve while Jaylin Stapleton added ten points while dishing out a game high seven assists.
The Cougar bench outscored Garden City by nineteen points led by Keith's nine and eight coming from Hunt and Dirks.
Roberts matched Regan for game high honors with the twenty-six points in part to a 10-of-12 sinking of charity tosses. Daz'Monique Johnson posted a double-double in the losing effort scoring seventeen with eight offensive rebounds for a twelve rebound haul while leading the team with four assists and three steals. Bellany's three triples led to an eleven point night to round out the double-digit scoring.