It was a pretty good night at the Barton Gym for the Barton Cougar women’s basketball team.
It was a rare Wednesday night Homecoming, the Cougars moved to within a win of locking up a home playoff game and Coach Carter Kruger picked up his 50th win of his coaching career – all at Barton.
The Cougars rolled by visiting Colby, 78-51, to improve to 7-7 in the Jayhawk West – two games clear of Pratt for that final home spot in the opening round of post season. The Cougars are 17-9 overall while Colby fell to 4-11 in the West and 11-18 overall on the season.
Barton will travel to Pratt Saturday where it can wrap up that fourth seed from the West in the upcoming Region VI playoffs.
“We came out and played a high level from the get-go,” Coach Kruger said. “We always look great when we make shots, but I thought it was our defense early that set the tone. Our players definitely deserve a lot of credit.”
Barton was never in trouble Wednesday, jumping to a 7-0 lead as Colby went nearly four minutes with a point to start the game. The lead was double digits by the midway point of the opening half and it never got to single digits again.
The Cougars had one of their best offensive nights of the season. A big part of that was just 12 turnovers which was the lowest total since the first week of December – 14 games ago.
The 78 points was the highest total since the first week of December – 15 games ago. It topped the 77 points scored at Dodge City as the highest total of the conference.
Barton reached the 50 percent mark from the field, going 30-of-60 to hit it exactly. It was the first time Barton made at least half its shots since the final week of November – 16 games ago.
The list goes on. The seven 3-pointers made by Barton (7-of-15) were the most the middle of November – 20 games ago. It was the second highest total of the season, one off the high of eight.
Barton put four players in double figures led by Indiah Cauley with 15. The 5-8 freshman from Philadelphia snapped out of a bit of a scoring slump after combining for 17 points the last three games. That came on the heels of a stretch where the guard scored in double figures in four of six games. Cauley also had a team-high seven rebounds to go with five assists.
The Dodge City connection combined for 25 points as sophomore Ciera Lampe scored 13 and freshman Katrina Roenfeldt added 12. Both his three 3-pointers, going 6-for-11 as a duo. Roenfeldt matched Cauley with seven rebounds.
KK Anthony was back in double figures with 10 after putting up just six in the loss at Hutchinson – her lowest total of the season. Anthony has been in double figures 25 of 28 games this year.
Jada Grady was the lone Trojan in double figures with 10.
Barton can wrap up fourth with a win at either Pratt Saturday or if needed back at home Wednesday against Cloud County. The Cougars are now 7-1 in the West against all teams not named Hutchinson, Seward, and Butler. Barton is 0-6 against those top three teams. It Barton and Pratt were to end tied at 7-9 Pratt would get the No. 4 seed due to tiebreakers.
“Colby was step one toward our goal of entering post season on a winning streak,” Coach Kruger said.  “Now we have a very tough road game coming up as step two.”