The Barton Community College women's basketball team reached the twenty win mark for the first time since the 2014 season as the Cougars bounced back from a disappointing Saturday loss to earn a road 55-46 victory Monday at Colby Community College.
The victory secured Barton the third spot out of the Jayhawk West improving to 13-6 and 20-8 on the season with a pair of road games remaining on the regular season schedule. Colby suffers its tenth straight loss sinking to 3-15 and 8-19 overall. Barton's next trip comes Wednesday in a 5:30 p.m. tip at 10th ranked Hutchinson Community College before concluding the schedule at Garden City Community College on Saturday.
After getting the first four points to again lead by four at 6-2, the Cougars went ice cold the rest of the quarter to the tune of 19% shooting to trail 12-10.
Colby pushed the lead out to seven, grabbing the first five of the second frame, but Barton began to turn the tide getting a combined four straight from Jaylin Stapleton and Richelle Turney to eventually trail at halftime 22-18.
Barton continued the momentum out of the locker room by scoring the first six in flipping the advantage on Taylor Regan's first bucket of the game for a 24-22 lead. Trading buckets with the Trojans regaining the lead a couple of times with Colby's last coming at 31-30, Barton took command for good behind a 9-0 spurt capped Irene Chukwudi's offensive rebound and subsequent kick-out to Turney for the Cougars' lone trey of the game.
The third quarter lead grew by two as Chukwudi's bucket pushed the lead to ten in opening the final frame. Colby hung around enough to cut the margin to seven but another Chukwudi hoop kept the Trojans at bay. Stapleton's steal and transition layup pushed the margin to eleven just under the five minute mark but the final dagger came with two minutes to play. Chukwudi hit for a new career high 15th point with Stapleton securing an offensive rebound on the next possession resulting in being sent to the free throw line as the subsequent pair of free throws ballooned the gap to thirteen with 1:20 left.
Stapleton's eighteen points led the Cougars on the night as the Meade sophomore added to her career shattering made free throws in sinking 11-of-12. Chukwudi's big game also included seven rebounds with Regan hauling down a team high eleven to help Barton to a nine rebound advantage.
Sia Williams led Colby with twelve points coming on just 4-of-17 shots from the field while Kiara Knight added eleven to round out the double-digit Trojan scorers.