The Barton Community College women's basketball team allowed just fifteen second half points Saturday afternoon at the Barton Gym for a 50-41 victory over Garden City Community College.
Down six after the first period horn, Tatum Boettjer heated up in the second period burying a trio of arc busters before sending a skip pass late in the half leading to Darby Smith's drained right wing trey sending the Cougars up one to the halftime break.
As Boettjer was to the Cougars' second quarter, Vera Ojenuwa was the force in the third frame scoring twelve of Barton's fourteen points increasing the margin to nine.
Following a Garden City bucket to open the final frame, another Boettjer trey pushed the gap to double digits before concluding Barton's scoring with her 5th triple to ice the game for the Cougars' largest margin of eleven with forty-two seconds remaining.
The fourth straight win of the series improves Barton to 15-6 in league and marks the 4th straight year under Head Coach Alan Clark of a 20-win season by improving to 20-7 overall. Garden City drops to 10-12 in conference and 15-12 on the season.
Barton has three games remaining on the regular season slate beginning Wednesday with a 5:30 p.m. tip at 15th ranked Dodge City Community College followed by next Saturday's sophomore night hosting top ranked Hutchinson Community College. The Cougars final tune-up comes Tuesday, March 5th, with a trip to Colby Community College.
Ojenuwa shook off the slow start with fourteen second half points in finishing with a game high 16 points and 12 rebounds in posting the freshman's 13th double-double of the year. Boettjer came off the bench for 5-of-10 shooting behind the arc for 15 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.
Leading Barton's 17 assists on 20 made buckets, Quezia Bertoni dished out 7 dimes with 6 points and 5 rebounds while Grace John distributed 5 assists and added 4 points and 6 rebounds.
Smith finished with just the three second period big points giving Barton the halftime edge but forced a career high 5 steals of the Cougars' ten total.
Sierra Driessen was the lone Broncbuster in double figures with 13 points with Antonicia Moultrie giving Garden City a one rebound margin by matching Ojenuwa's game high 12 rebounds while contributing 7 points and 4 steals.
SERIES NOTES:
- Barton swept the season series for the second straight year
- Teams combined for 91 or less points for the second time in the last five meetings
- Barton leads the series 33-12 at the Barton Gym
- Barton leads the overall series 68-26