A long streak ended in Liberal Wednesday evening as the 22nd ranked Barton Community College women's basketball team pulled out a late victory over Seward County Community College 60-57 to open the 2023 portion of the schedule.
Resting a 10-game losing streak inside the Greenhouse, the Cougars move into sole possession of second place in the KJCCC standings at 7-2 and improve to 13-2 on the season while the loss drops the Saints to third place in the conference at 7-3 and 9-7 overall.
Barton will return home Saturday afternoon welcoming in the Mavericks of Northwest Kansas Technical College in a 2:00 p.m. tip inside the newly renovated Barton Gym.
Jenny Nkem Womsi led eight Cougars in the scoring column supporting her 10th double-double of the year, turning in a season high 23 points and pulling down a game high 17 rebounds. Morgan Meyers added six of her nine points in the second half with Mikaela Hall and Breanna Kirchhoff each adding eight with none bigger than Kirchhoff's left corner trey with 45-seconds left to give Barton the lead for good. Acorionna Lard paced the Barton distribution dishing out a game high eight assists and adding five points.
A pair of Saints eclipsed double figure scoring, Kylee Hunt leading with 17 points in going 7-of-17 from the field and De'Shawnri Thomas posting her third double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds in thirty-eight minutes.
Trailing 7-4 just 2:28 in, a pair of Rachel Emmanuel charity tosses jump started a 10-0 run, being followed by a Lard trey, Womsi bucket, and Kirchhoff triple doubling up the Saints at 14-7 at the midway point. Trading a pair of 4-0 runs the gap remained at seven, 18-11 at the opening stanza horn.
Sustaining a two possession lead through the opening three minutes of the second quarter, a quick 5-0 stretch pushed Barton to its' largest lead of the night 25-15 with 6:10 to play behind a Meyers' splash from long distance and Womsi bucket. Exchanging a pair of 4-0 runs, Womsi remained the offensive catalyst scoring the Cougars final 11 points of the quarter sending Barton into the locker rooms in front 34-27.
The Saints opened the third quarter scoring the opening four points, chipping the margin to three in the opening 2:35 before Womsi's 13th straight point and Lili Shubert's lone trifecta of the evening pushed the advantage back to eight with 6:00 left. Seward would continue to slice the deficit to within two and eventually getting it to one 45-44 in the final seconds of the third before Meyers' pair of big free throws just before the horn sending Barton into the fourth up 47-44.
Holding a two-point lead through the opening two-minutes, Barton would trail after the next seven minutes following a pivotal 6-0 Saints stretch and the Cougars coming up empty in near three minute scoreless stretch. Trailing for just the second time on the night at 55-51 with 1:44 remaining, Barton strung the next five points on a pair of Micaela Hall charity tosses, a defensive stop leading to a transition left corner Kirchhoff trifecta for just Barton's third made field goal of the quarter in putting the Cougars in front for good 56-55 with forty-five ticks left.
Extending the lead to three following Meyers' pair free throws with twenty ticks left, a Saints turnover would hand the ball back to the Cougars. Whistled for a player technical foul just before the inbound, the Saints drained its pair of free throws and gained possession with a chance to win. A wild driving shot came up empty with Womsi securing the rebound, putting the cap on Barton's perfect 13-for-13 night at the charity stripe with two twine splitters, pushing the gap to three with the Saints' tying attempt with seconds left missing its mark.
An almost similar stat sheet between the two teams, the Cougars shot 35% from the field going 21-of-59 while the Saints shot it slightly better 40% on 24-of-60 shooting.
Barton held a slight edge in the rebound column outrebounding Seward by three, collecting eight offensive boards to the Saints six.