COLBY – Road win, check. School record, check.
The Barton women’s basketball finally got that monkey off its back Wednesday night at the Community Building in Colby.
Barton rolled to a 79-53 Jayhawk Conference win over Colby as Mallory Miller put her name in the record books with 10 3-pointers.
“You knew we would get one on the road sooner or later,” Coach Alan Clark said. “It was just a matter of time. But, still, it’s awfully nice to get that first win. Now we need to build on it.”
The Cougars are now 9-5 in the Jayhawk and 12-6 overall. Colby is 2-12 and 4-14. The loss was the sixth straight for the Trojans. The win keeps Barton tied for fifth in the conference standings with Butler and Cloud County.
Cowley and Seward County are tied at the top of the conference at 12-2 after play Wednesday. Seward knocked Hutchinson out of a tie for the lead, beating the Blue Dragons 62-49, in Hutch.
The Cougars were 0-5 on the road this year – all Jayhawk games. Those losses were all to teams in the top half of the conference.
There was never a real chance Barton would go 0-13 on the road in the conference, but getting that first win takes some pressure off the Cougars.
Barton trailed momentarily in the opening quarter. That didn’t last too long. Taylor Regan gave Barton an 8-6 lead with 3:50 left in the opening quarter. The Cougars would not trail again.
In fact that Regan basket in the lane started a 16-0 run for the Cougars to to end the quarter, giving Barton a 22-6 lead after the first 10 minutes of play.
“We played good defense during that stretch,” Coach Clark said. “Usually runs are sparked on the defensive end of the floor. That 16-0 run was no different.”
Freshman Jaylin Stapleton led the way with 13 first quarter points.
The Cougars, behind the outside shooting of Miller, continued to pull away in the second quarter. Miller knocked down five-of-five second period treys – including one at the halftime buzzer – to propel Barton to a 45-19 halftime lead.
The Cougars were a little lethargic to start the second half as Colby outscored Barton 6-2 over the first five minutes of the half before Miller hit her sixth trey of the game.
A sloppy third period saw Barton score just 10 points but still took a commanding lead into the final 10 minutes at 55-38.
Behind the play of Tierra Itula, Colby was able to get the lead as low as 14 early in the fourth period.
Miller ended any hopes Colby had of a comeback as the freshman from Goddard hit back-to-back treys to make it a 67-47 with just over four minutes left in the game. That gave her eight for the game – tying Ipek Turkyilmaz and Katrina Roenfeldt for the school record.
Miller would reach that school record moments later for her third trey in a matter of minutes and ninth of the game.
She wasn’t done. Miller added a 10th 3-pointer before the game would end.
Miller finished with a career-high 34 points to lead the Cougars in the win. She hit 10-of-14 3-pointers in the win for the most points scored by a Cougar this season.
“This building is not a great place to shoot the ball,” Coach Clark said. “What she did was pretty remarkable.”
Stapleton, after the big first quarter, ended with 17 points. The freshman from Meade added five assists and three steals. Regan had 11 points and a career-high 18 rebounds for her second double-double of the season.
Itula led the Trojans with 28 points and 11 rebounds.
Barton will return home in an effort to avenge an earlier loss this year when Garden City pays a visit to the Barton Gym Saturday. The Broncbusters are coming off 76-63 loss to Butler and are 7-7 in the conference. Garden is 10-8 overall. Tip is set for 5:30 pm.

Barton 79, Colby 53
Barton 22 23 10 24 – 79
Colby 6 13 19 15 – 53
Barton (9-5, 12-6) 79
Chagas 1-5 0-0 3, Stapleton 5-14 6-8 17, Regan 5-13 1-2 11, Jellison 3-5 3-3 9, Ndao 2-3 0-0 4, Miller 11-16 2-2 34, Dixon 0-2 1-2 1, White 0-2 0-0 0, Dirks 0-2 0-0 0, Dolinsky 0-3 0-0 0. Totals – 27-65 13-17 79.
Colby (2-12, 4-14) 53
Br Bixenman 1-4 0-0 2, Leonard 3-16 0-0 7, Guillory 2-8 3-6 7, Itula 11-18 5-5 28, Woodward 1-10 0-0 2, Dixon 2-8 0-0 4, Rush 0-1 0-0 0, Blue 0-0 0-0 0, Chacon 1-1 1-1 3, Keltz 0-1 0-0 0, Ba. Bixenman 0-6 0-0 0. Totals –- 21-74 9-12 53.
3-pointers – Barton 12-22 (Miller 10-14, Chagas 1-2, Stapleton 1-2, Dolinsky 0-1, Dirks 0-1, Dixon 0-2); Colby 2-22 (Itula 1-1, Leonard 1-7, Dixon 0-1, Br. Bixenman 0-2, Ba. Bixenman 0-5, Woodward 0-6).
Rebounds – Barton 55 (Regan 18), Colby 40 (Itula 11). Assists – Barton 12 (Stapleton 5), Colby 4 (Guillory 3). Steals – Barton 8 (Stapleton 3), Colby 9 (Guillory 2, Itula 2). Blocks – Barton 5 (Regan 2, Miller 2), Colby 3 (Guillory 2).
Turnovers – Barton 26, Colby 16. Fouled Out – None. Technicals – None.