The Barton Community College women's basketball team pulled away from the start Saturday afternoon at the Barton Gym, earning a convincing 73-60 victory over Pratt Community College.
Victors in five straight, Barton ups its conference mark to a Jayhawk West third best 8-3 record and 9-3 overall mark while sending sixth place Pratt to its second straight loss falling to 3-8 in the West and 4-8 overall.
The Cougars will travel down to the Sports Arena Wednesday night in a pivotal Jayhawk West showdown against conference leading and 17th ranked Hutchinson Community College in a 5:30 p.m. toss.
Knotted up twice through the opening four minutes, Barton operated stretches of five and eight straight claiming a 25-14 advantage at the quarters end behind a pair of Tiffany Dortland treys.
Expanding the lead to its' largest of the first half at 37-22 with 3:43 remaining, the Beavers would close to within seven just before the halftime break.
Scoring six points in the opening half, sophomore Vanessa Oduah doubled her total opening the third on a personal 6-2 spurt stretching the Cougar lead back to double-digits 46-36 with 6:33 to play. The Barton advantage hovered around 10-points over the next five minutes, until a 5-0 spurt on Dortland's third triple and Lyndi Rumford jumper grew Barton's lead to 60-45 at the end of the third.
The scoring continued as baskets by Cora Anderson and Oduah pressed the lead to its' largest of 17 at 64-47 with 8:38 to play. The teams seesawed over the final eight minutes with neither team recording more than four straight points as Barton secured the 73-60 victory.
Oduah's 17-point performance earned game high honors in leading four Cougars in double digits. Queen Ulabo posted her second consecutive and twelfth career double-double performance tallying 15 points and hauling down a game high 10 rebounds. Dortland added 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting behind the arc falling two boards shy of a double-double performance. Anderson rounded out the double-figure scoring tying her career high of 10 points.
Cassie Onwugbfor led just two Pratt players in double digits, adding a bench high 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting. Christy Wiebe added ten points in 27 minutes of action as Pratt tallied a 35-18 advantage in bench scoring.