A 14-0 start Tuesday evening on the road was not enough as the 25th ranked Barton Community College women's basketball team was unable to withstand the sizzling outside shooting of Pratt Community College falling 99-89 inside the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena.
Taking its' first conference loss of the season, the Cougars fall to 1-1 in league play and 5-2 on the season while the victory improves the Beavers to 1-1 in conference and 5-2 overall.
Barton will look to secure its' first true road win of the season Saturday afternoon with a trip north to Concordia for a 2:00 p.m. tip at Cloud County Community College before returning home next Wednesday, November 29th in hosting Cowley College.
Scoring the game's opening fourteen points appeared to be the ideal start the Cougars were looking for before five straight triples rung in by Pratt furnished a 17-6 Beaver close to the opening frame cut Barton's lead to 20-17.
Maintaining a five-point lead just two minutes into the second frame, a quick 7-0 Pratt run handed the Beavers its' first lead at 30-28 with the advantage growing to nine six minutes later at 41-32 behind three more outside triples capping an 18-4 stretch. Eclipsing a career high in the first half, Quezia Bertoni's personal 7-3 close to the second quarter drew Barton back within 44-39 at the halftime break.
Nearly a matching start to the third quarter as the first quarter had Barton scoring 11 of the opening 13 points to regain the lead at 50-46 with 4:54 to play. The Cougars sustained the lead stretching it to eight, 66-58 with under a minute to play in the third quarter following a McKenna Vogl layup and four points apiece by Vivian Onugha and Bella Peterson. Barton carried a 66-60 lead into the final frame succeeding a pair of Beaver charity tosses in the final ten seconds of the quarter.
Able to withstand a pair of Beaver triples in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, Barton's lead hovered around four points until the midway point when back-to-back long-distance ringings and a bucket flipped the lead back to Pratt for good at 78-74.
Clawing back within 84-83 after Ojenuwa and Grace John baskets, Barton's hopes of a comeback dissipated on Pratt knocking down 11 of 12 from the charity stripe in the final 2:12 to secure its' first home victory over the Cougars since 2015.
Bertoni led Barton's four players in double figures adding a career high 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting and dishing out six assists.
Tatum Boettjer dialed in four of Barton's eight three-pointers finishing with 18 points and six rebounds.
Onugha posted her first collegiate double-double adding 12 points and 12 rebounds with Vera Ojenuwa and John each adding 12 points to conclude Barton's double-figure scoring.
John led the Cougars distribution dishing out a game high eight assists.
Princess Anderson led all scorers with 36 points, canning 5-of-9 from behind the arch, while Isis Sanders added 27 points in knocking down a game high 6-of-13 from outside. Macy Hanzlick rounded out the double-figure scoring for the Beavers with 12 of her 16 points coming behind the three-point line.
Barton shot 53.2% on the evening with a solid 8-of-16 (50%) from long distance while Pratt finished with a season best 50% from the field and a scorching 17-of-39 (43.6%) from behind the arc, also a new season best mark.
SERIES NOTES:
- Barton leads the overall series 81-10
- Barton leads the series in Pratt 39-7
- Pratt's win snapped Barton's 9-game winning streak in the series
- Pratt's win at the Beaver Dome is the first home win over Barton since 2015
- Barton is 13-2 in the last 15 games against Pratt
- 188 points combined is the most ever scored in the series history
- Pratt's 99 points scored is the most ever scored in the series against Barton
- Pratt's 17 made three pointers is the most ever allowed by Barton in a single game