The Barton Community College women's basketball team led for thirty-seven minutes Monday at the Barton Gym, rolling out to a thirty-one point lead before holding on to an 81-67 victory over the national receiving votes Saints of Seward County Community College.
Winning their 8th straight conference game for the first time since 2009, Barton snaps a six-game losing streak to the Saints in taking over sole possession of second place in the West at 11-3 and 12-3 overall while Seward County slips to 10-4 in both conference and on the season.
The Cougars return to the home floor on Wednesday for a 5:30 p.m. tip hosting Garden City Community College.
Vanessa Oduah scored 23 points and dished out six assists to pace four Cougars in double-figures. Queen Ulabo's fifth straight double-double stacked the sheet with 17 points and 13 rebounds while recording three of Barton's five steals. Tiffany Dortland connected on three behind the arc for 14 points with eight rebounds. Marliah Johnson continued her strong improvement, chalking up a career high 13 points with three assists and a steal.
The Saints also put four in double-figures led by the 15 points from Hulda Joaquim. Zane Thompson added 14 points with Sierra Lynch contributing 13 points and team high 6 rebounds. Delma Zita rounded out the top scorers with 10 points.
Barton controlled the boards 54-29 including 17 coming on the offensive glass. The Cougars shot 40.9% for the game but a near perfect 22-of-24 from the stripe for a program 6th best .916 percentage.
Seward County shot just 35.9%, launching 38 shots beyond the arc in making twelve.
RECAP
Barton trailed 6-4 until Johnson's first of two made three-pointers in the game put the Cougars out front for good with 6:49 remaining in the opening frame. Barton stretched it to an eight point advantage on a 6-0 run in an eventual 19-14 lead at the end of the quarter.
An 8-0 run to open the second pushed the gap to thirteen before Seward County buried three triples in the span of two minutes to cut the margin to 30-23 with 4:36 left. From there the Cougars strung thirteen straight, getting five from Oduah and Johnson knocking down her second beyond the arc, in building out a twenty point lead with 1:33 left. The teams traded buckets with Dortland's third trey capping the first half scoring for a Barton 48-27 advantage to the locker room.
Following a Saint bucket to open up third quarter scoring, Barton strung nine straight behind five made three throws including Dortland's conversion of the And-1 taking the score to 57-29. The Saints halted the spurt with a three-pointer but another six-pack of points led by Ulabo's four pushed the margin to a game high 31 points with 2:50 left.
In a tale of two halves, Barton committed just five turnovers in the first half but the Saints' go-for-broke full-court press caused nineteen Cougar miscues in the final twenty minutes including eleven in the third.
Five of those eleven came in the remaining 2:50 of the third with the Saints slicing the deficit in half outscoring the Cougars 18-2 as Barton clung to a 65-50 lead after the three periods.
Following another Barton turnover to begin the fourth, Seward County knocked down their 12th and final three-pointer closing the difference to 65-53 with 9:27 to play. Cora Anderson sank a pair of free throws with the Saints coming back with a bucket capping their 23-4 stretch to again close within twelve.
Oduah's slash to the hole with 7:38 left ended a 6 ½ minute drought without a field goal. A pair of Ulabo charity tosses a few possessions later gave Barton a seventeen point lead with 6:25 to play.
The Saints got as close as eleven at 76-65 with 2:28 but could not capitalize on another Barton turnover and two missed free throws.
Gabby Flute Player's finding of Lyndi Rumford on the low block completing the press break iced the game on a fourteen point lead with 43 ticks left.