Dropping big shots at opportune times Monday evening at the Power Plant, the 22nd ranked Barton Community College women's basketball team closed out the fall portion of the schedule victorious 62-54 at 24th ranked Butler Community College.
Finishing out the semester on a three game win streak, Barton rests in 3rd place of the conference standings at 6-2 and 12-2 on the season. Holding Butler to an opponent's season low 27% shooting and winning their second straight at the Power Plant, Barton drops Butler to 5th place of the standings at 6-3 and 10-3 on overall.
Playing five of its eight conference games on the road, the Cougars begin the spring semester also on the road with a January 4th trip to Seward County Community before hosting Northwest Kansas Technical College on Saturday, January 7.
Morgan Meyers proved to be the big shot catalyst for the Cougars, getting into the scoring column with 24 seconds left in the third period on a triple giving Barton momentum to the final quarter and an eight point lead. Following a Butler basket to begin the final period, Meyers knocked down another pushing the margin to nine.
After a pair of Grizzly free throws, enter Grace John in making the most of her nine minutes played by swishing a big three pointer for just her second of the season. Three minutes later Meyers found gold from deep again with Jenny Nkem Womsi's inside bucket from Meyers' find pushed Barton's lead to its largest at 50-37 with 5:18 left.
The gap closed to seven but Mikaela Hall's pair of clutch charity tosses momentarily held off Butler's charge as the last of the big shots was delivered by Alissa Heskamp's corner pocket three-pointer with 2:14 left in pushing the lead back to nine.
Lili Shubert and Brennan Kirchhoff contributed to the icing in the final 45 seconds in sinking 3-of-4 from the charity stripe.
Womsi notched her 9th double-double of the season in leading Baton, scoring 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting while collecting 18 rebounds in taking over the top spot of the region.
Kirchhoff was the only other Cougar in double-figures, giving the squad a big momentum swing with consecutive treys to end the second quarter sending Barton to locker room with a seven point cushion.
Meyers' late deep shooting accounted for all of her 9 points in having a stat stuffing 6 assists and 4 steals to lead all players.
Despite addled with foul problems throughout night, Acorionna Lard's 50% shooting led to 9 points but contributed 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and a momentum swinging steal with 1:15 left as Barton clung to a then-seven point lead. Rachael Emmanuel also came up big with a career high three blocks including a late second quarter thwarting leading to Kirchhoff's second triple sending Barton to the break with the seven point edge.
In a tough battle between a pair of the region's most formidable defenses, Barton shook off a 37% first half shooting to finish at 41.1% after a sizzling 53.8% connections in the fourth quarter.
The Grizzlies outrebounded Barton by three in the contest, collecting 19 offensive rebounds in part to shooting less than 20% through the first three quarters which included fifteen minutes of the thirty minutes held scoreless. Like the Cougars, Butler heated up in the final frame to shoot 47.1% for just 27% overall.
Freddie Wallace led Butler with 21 points, grabbing 8 rebounds but was overshadowed on the boards by guard Maycee James in hauling down a game high 17 rebounds while dishing out a team high 5 assists.
Both teams suffered from the free throw line, Barton getting there just nine times for 55.6% while Butler toed the stripe 25 times in making just 13 for an even less 52%.