Wednesday night the Barton Community College women's basketball team did something its' not done since the 2014 Region VI playoffs, knocking off Cowley College inside the Tigers' home arena of the W. S. Scott Auditorium as the Cougars erased a late deficit to win 70-67.
The victory, the first regular season win in Arkansas City since 2006, improves Barton to 2-1 in KJCCC play and 3-1 on the season. Cowley remains searching for its' first conference win of the season, dipping to 0-4 in league play and 2-4 on the year. The Cougars will have the weekend off before hosting Coffeyville Community College next Wednesday in a 5:30 p.m. tip at the Barton Gym.
The Cougars grasped their lone lead of the opening quarter following a Cora Anderson layup just 1:24 into the contest. Cowley would seize the lead back with a 4-0 spurt, before burying the Cougars into their deepest hole of the night, 14-7 four minutes later in riding out to a 17-11 advantage into the second frame.
The Cougars got things rolling scoring six of the first eight points to begin the second with buckets from Queen Ulabo, Vanessa Oduah and Brennan Kirchhoff. A Cowley bucket would stretch things back to four until eight straight from a trio of Barton freshman jumped the Cougars back in front 25-21 with 4:00 to play. A pair of trifectas from Cowley's Ryley Beard aided an 8-0 answer by the Tigers capturing the advantage one final time in the half at 29-25. A Barton 5-0 spurt in the final two minutes with points coming from Marliah Johnson, Ulabo, and Anderson guided the Cougars into the locker rooms up 30-29, outscoring the Tigers 29-12 in the second frame.
The teams went back-and-forth in the third quarter with three different lead changes. Held to just two points in the opening twenty minutes, Oduah had a monster second half, scoring nine of Barton's 18 third quarter points giving Barton their biggest lead of five, 47-42 with 1:21 left in the quarter. A late 7-0 surge by Cowley passed the lead back to the Tigers 49-48 heading into the fourth.
Scoring seven of the first nine points to open the final frame, Barton looked to be in control succeeding sophomore Rebecca Leveque's and-one conversion spreading the lead back to four. Cowley wouldn't go away on their home floor, stringing six straight to seize back the lead with 1:37 remaining at 63-62. With just a minute remaining on the clock, a pair of tosses by Oduah gave Barton the lead for good as additional clutch free throw shooting over the final 30-seconds from sophomores Tiffany Dortland and Oduah put a lid on Cowley's chances securing Barton's first victory in Arkansas City since 2014.
Two Cougars' reached double figure scoring, both securing new season highs. Oduah led all scorers with 20 points, 18 coming in the second half, while dishing out a game high five assists. Gabby Flute Player added 10 points off the bench on 5-of-6 shooting. Flirting with a double-double, Ulabo finished one point shy with nine points to go along with her team high 11 rebounds.
Shontrice Austion led Cowley in scoring with 19 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Beard came off the bench contributing 17 behind 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. Martyna Kowalska put in a double-double 13 points and game high 14 rebounds in twenty minutes of court time.