The Barton Community College women's basketball team fought off a late surge Saturday afternoon earning a 63-54 victory over Colby Community College inside the Barton Gym.
The third straight victory improves Barton to a third best 6-3 Jayhawk West mark and 7-3 record overall while the victory halts the Trojans two game winning streak in the series dipping Colby to 1-7 in league play and 2-7 overall.
Barton will head out on the road Wednesday night in a 6:30 p.m. tilt against Northwest Kansas Technical College looking for revenge from an earlier season 65-59 loss to the Mavericks.
A pair of Tiffany Dortland trifectas jump-started Barton to an 8-0 advantage just three minutes into the contest. Following a 3:28 scoreless drought to open the game, the Trojans offense caught fire outscoring the Cougars 14-5 over the next 3:16 giving Colby its first and lone lead of 14-13. Succeeding a Barton timeout with 3:12 to play in the opening frame, a 9-0 spurt led by the sophomore tandem of Dortland, Vanessa Oduah and Queen Ulabo handed Barton a 22-14 advantage.
In the second period, Colby would trim the deficit to six a pair of times, until a personal 4-0 Cora Anderson run and a 6-0 spurt fueled by five Lyndi Rumford tallies led Barton into the locker rooms up 36-24.
A third trifecta from Dortland in the opening minute of the quarter would stretch the Barton lead to 13 but a Trojan seven spot shaved the Cougar lead back to single digits 39-31. A pair of 5-0 and 6-0 runs looked to have Barton in full control expanding the Barton advantage to its largest of 16, 50-34 with 1:59 to play in the quarter. Meanwhile the Trojans countered back scoring five of the final seven points drawing back to within 51-40 at the end of the third.
Barton turnovers provided hope to the Trojans as Colby knocked down back-to-back triples to open the final frame. Buckets by Gabby Flute Player and Ulabo dragged the Barton lead back to nine 'til three straight turnovers once again ignited life into the visitors as a pair of 4-0 runs drew Colby to within three, 57-54 with 1:42 to play. The trio of Barton sophomores stood tall in the final minute with Oduah, Dortland and Ulabo each contributing a pair withholding any Colby rally stretching the final margin back to nine, 63-54.
Dortland notched her fourth 20-point performance of the season scoring a game high 20 points on 3-of-9 shooting from behind the arc while pulling down seven rebounds. Ulabo added in 18 points to go along with a team tying eight-rebound outing. Oduah dished out a game high seven assists finishing two points shy of a double-figure scoring effort.
Kiarra Henderson led the Colby charge in recording a double-double 13 points and game high 14 rebounds in 36 minutes of court time. Kerrigan Johnson tallied 12 points of 4-of-9 shooting while Dajah Vigilante contributed 11 points off the bench.