The Barton Community College women's basketball team ran into a sharp shooting Northwest Kansas Technical College squad Wednesday evening at the Barton Gym as the Mavericks outlasted the Cougars late for a 65-59 victory.
The loss snaps Barton's modest two-game win streak, falling to 2-2 in KJCCC play and dropping to 3-2 on the season while the Mavericks improve their mark to 4-1 in conference action and 4-1 on the season.
Barton will seek to get back in the win column on Saturday afternoon hosting Neosho County Community College with original tip time being pushed up to a 2:00 p.m. start inside the Barton Gym.
From the opening tip, it was all Northwest Tech as the Mavericks strung stretches of nine and seven straight points to build an opening quarter advantage of 21-9. Burying their fifth three-pointer just before the first quarter horn, the Mavericks capped a sizzling shooting mark of 57.1% from the field fueled by a 62.5% mark from long distance.
The Barton deficit grew to its' largest of the game of 16, coming at 27-11 succeeding a 6-2 Mavericks spurt to open the second frame. Barton began its' climb back midway through the quarter utilizing an 8-2 stretch trimming the margin to 29-19. Following the Mavericks' sixth triple of the opening half, an answer from Brennan Kirchhoff and bucket by Vanessa Oduah brought the Cougars to within eight until the Mavericks connected on their seventh trifecta sending Barton to the locker room down 35-25.
Northwest Tech accounted for the opening two points to open the third before Barton came firing back with ten straight on Queen Ulabo's five straight followed by Oduah's hoop-n-harm and a Bryn Willt layup pulling the Cougars to within 37-35 with 4:39 to play. A minute later Barton would tie things up for the first time following 1-of-2 trips from the charity stripe by Ulabo and Marliah Johnson. A possession later, Johnson would give Barton its' first lead of the game 39-37 with 3-minutes to play after a perfect 2-for-2 trip to the line. Willt's second bucket of the quarter would cap the Cougars 16-0 run as the Cougars would outscore the Mavericks 18-5 in the third taking a 43-40 lead into the fourth.
Oduah handed Barton its' largest lead of five twice early in the fourth, however the margin would quickly dissipate. Northwest Tech put a 15% shooting third period behind them, responding with their seventh and eighth triples helping spark an 8-0 run reclaiming the lead for good with 3:41 to play. The Cougars would get a couple of chances late following a pair of Mavericks miscues but a costly miscue of their own with 15-seconds left dampened Barton's chances as Northwest Tech converted 6-of-6 from the free throw line sealing its' first win over Barton in the nine game series-to-date.
Ulabo led the Barton scoring and rebounding, posting her first double-double of the season finishing with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Oduah was the lone other in double-digits, adding 17 points to go with her seven rebounds.
Lauryn Vieira led Northwest Tech with 24 points on 4-of-9 shooting from long distance. Chloe Andrew added 15 points with Moniek Meeringa leading the Mavericks with five rebounds to go along with 11 points.