Behind a strong defensive effort Wednesday evening at the Barton Gym, the 18th ranked Barton Community College women's basketball team completed its season sweep over Cloud County Community College with a 55-41 victory.
Tied at 22 midway through the second period, Barton scored the final ten points of the frame before stretching the gap to fifteen late in the third quarter in grinding out its 7th straight win of the series.
In doing so, the Cougars won the battle of the top conference board collecting teams leading to holding the T-Birds to its season low offensive output, two less than Cloud County's previous defeat to Barton the first time the teams met in Concordia.
Reaching the 20-win mark for the third straight season, the now 20-4 Cougars helped solidify its third place conference standing at 14-4. Cloud County slips into the seventh slot at 9-9 in dropping to 14-10 overall.
The Cougars travel the short distance south to Pratt on Saturday in taking on the Beavers in a 2:00 p.m. matinee tip.
Leading Barton's key stat leading rebounds, Jenny Nkem Womsi hauled down six of her game high 15 rebounds on the offensive end in moving up the program charts leading to a 22 point night to post her 18th double-double of the year. Mikaela Hall also had a big night on the glass with an 8 rebound and 8 point performance, to go along with a season high 3 blocks. Not adding to the scoring column but also coming up big, Brennan Kirchhoff had two steals with 6 rebounds including two on the offensive glass for the 5'4" sophomore.
Knocking down a career high five three-pointers on the night, Morgan Meyers scored fifteen of her 19 points in first half action as the teams traded blows through the opening twenty minutes.
The T-Birds led for just 43 seconds of the game, the last coming at 6-5 before Meyers dropped two long range shots sparking a 10-0 Barton run and a 15-8 first quarter advantage.
Cloud County rallied in the first three minutes on a point spurt to tie it up with the teams trading shots to again be tied up at 19. Meyers then canned her fourth triple, only to be answered by Lilly Smith's triple, but the red-hot Meyers stepped up again to can her fifth of the half to spark Barton's 10-0 closeout of the half.
Womsi's opening third frame bucket capped the twelve point stretch with four minutes later Meyers' drive to the cup sparked six straight pushing the gap to its largest of fifteen with 1:27 left.
Putting the final six points on the board to outscore the Cougars 11-10 in the third frame, Cloud County was able to cut the deficit to nine but it would be as close as they would come.
Barton held the T-Birds in the quarter to just eight points for the second time of the contest and consecutive 20% shooting periods to finish off the victory.
Maimouna Sissoko was the lone T-Bird to reach double figures with 14 points, joined by Alize Ruiz and Te araroa Sopoaga for team high rebound honors with seven each.
Game Notes
Barton Defensive Numbers:
- Season lows in Points Scored and FG Made
- 25.9% FG – second lowest of season *Season low (24.6%) set at Cloud County on December 7
Record Book Watch and Impacts:
Brennan Kirchhoff: 5th in made career three-pointers (101 *26 from Kristine Silaraja' 2007-09 total)
Morgan Meyers: 6th in made career three-pointers (100)
Jenny Nkem Womsi:
- 6th in single season rebounds (317 *Passed Shirley Archer's 311 in 1995-96 season, and Taylor Regan's 313 in 2017-18 season; **20 from Sheila Hubert's 337 during 1983-84 season)
- 5th in career rebounds (611 *Surpassed Beth Lebsack's 596 total from 1980-82 seasons, 15 from Wendy Okeson's 626 total during 1998-00 seasons)