It was a rather mundane weekend for the Barton Community College women’s basketball team. Mundane in a good way as the Cougars rolled to a pair of blowout wins at the Conquistador Classic in Dodge City.
Barton cruised by the Tabor College JV Friday afternoon, 78-35. Saturday the Cougars used a big second half to roll by Jayhawk East foe Fort Scott Community College 83-56. The sweep ran Barton’s winning streak to 3 games and their overall mark to 3-1 following an opening season loss to a ranked foe.
“From an execution standpoint, we were a little bit of a roller coaster this weekend,” Coach Carter Kruger said. “I loved the energy we played with, but now it’s about our team playing hard and smart. In big games, both teams are going to play extremely hard, but it’s usually the smarter team that wins.”
Barton got off to a slow start in its midday Friday start leading just 13-8 more than eight minutes into the game. But Barton finally got things going on an 11-0 run to take a 24-8 lead and coasted into half with a 37-20 lead.
The Cougars opened the second half with a 10-1 run and never let off the gas. Barton outscored the Tabor JV 41-15 in the final 20 minutes for the 43-point blowout win.
“It was great to see us put together 40 minutes of solid basketball,” Coach Kruger said. “We have a lot of improvements that need to be made, but when we play with that kind of intensity and energy – especially defensively – we will continue to get better week in and week out.”
Sophomore Phikala Anthony led the Cougars with 15 points followed by fellow sophomore Bethany Bowman with 13. Dodge City freshman Katrina Roenfeldt added 12.
Saturday the Cougars again started slowly, this time falling behind the Greyhounds by eight. The Cougars were never able to catch Fort Scott during the opening 20 minutes of play and went to half down 36-33.
It wasn’t until the opening five minutes of the second half that Barton finally took the lead. After getting that lead Barton hit the accelerator. The Cougars put together a 23-8 run over a 10 minutes stretch in the second half as the Cougar defense went on lockdown.
Barton held the Greyhounds to just 12 points the final 15 minutes of the game on the way to the 27-point win. Over the final 20 minutes of play, Barton outscored Fort Scott 50-20.
“We came out in a little funk, and couldn’t quite break through in those first 25 minutes or so,” Coach Kruger said. “Once we eliminated most of our defensive mistakes, we really took off. That defense led to our explosive second half.”
Roenfeldt scored 24 in front of her hometown contingent to pace the Cougars followed by 19 from Anthony.
Barton will head out of state next weekend as the Cougars travel to Otero, Colo. for a pair of games at the Otero Classic. Barton will take on Trinidad State Friday in an afternoon game then battle host Otero Saturday to close out the weekend.