HESSTON — It wasn’t easy, and the Barton Community College women’s basketball team wasn’t playing flawlessly.
However, the Lady Cougars found a way to beat Hesston on Wednesday night on the road 64-52.
“We got a good lead, but we just didn’t play hard at the end of the game,” Barton head coach Carter Kruger said. “That was what was real disappointing. We played defense well for most of the game, and our offense started to finish. But we just stopped for the last 15 minutes or so.”
An 18-2 run at the end of the first half led to a 30-14 advantage at intermission.
“It was tied 12-12 in the first half,” Kruger said. “We missed a ton of easy baskets in the lane, the kind of shots we shouldn’t be missing. Our defense played well, though and then we went on an 18-2 run. We started hitting some shots.”
The Lady Cougars led by as much as 23 points in the second half, but Hesston started clawing back.
Hesston outscored Barton 38-34 in the second half, but couldn’t quite make up the difference.
Cheyenne Hedrington led Barton with 18 points. She also had seven rebounds.
“She did a nice job making some layups during that run at the end of the first half.” Kruger said. “She finished a few shots in the second half, too.”
Ashton Bruner had another double-double with 13 points and 17 rebounds.
Taylor Mayes added 10 points and nine rebounds, and Mariana Lambert had nine points and nine boards.
The Lady Cougars were cold most of the night, finishing 20-for-68 from the floor for 29.4 percent.
Barton improves to 6-0 on the season.
The Lady Cougars travel to the Neosho County Community College Hoops Classic on Friday, playing Allen County on Friday afternoon at 12:30.
Barton continues in the classic on Saturday, challenging host Neosho County at 5:30 p.m.

                                                      — Kevin Price