Lard's career high dimes leads 16th ranked Cougars to conference opening win at Garden City #GoBarton
Lard’s career high dimes leads 16th ranked Cougars to conference opening win at Garden City.
The 16th ranked Barton Community College women's basketball team erased an early eight point deficit Wednesday on the road to pick up a 79-65 conference opening victory at Garden City Community College.
Off to their best start since 2014, Barton improves to 7-0 on the season in dropping Garden City to 4-3 on the year. The Cougars will have a six-day layoff before Tuesday's welcoming of Cowley College to the Barton Gym for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off.
Acorionna Lard helped lead three other Cougars into double-digits by dishing out a career high 13 assists against just two turnovers as Barton distributed 25 on their 33-made baskets. Lard also contributed 14 points on 7-of-15 shooting, led the team with two steals, and helped Barton to a plus-10 advantage on the glass by grabbing 6 rebounds.
Reigning conference and national player of the week Jenny Nkem Womsi tied Brennan Kirchhoff for team high honors with 15 points, recording her 4th straight double-double by grabbing 10 rebounds. Morgan Meyers drained 3-of-5 beyond the arc for 13 points, dishing out five assists and grabbing 5 rebounds.
Dayshawna Carter led all scorers with 32 points on 12-of-24 shooting with Keyhana Turner adding 10 points as the lone Garden City player reaching double figures. Ariyah Brooks added 9 points and a team leading 7 rebounds while Taya Davis dished out team high honors 8 assists with 7 points.
Barton shot over 60% in each of the second and fourth quarters, finishing at 50.8% percent overall including 45.5% from three point (5-11) and a near perfect 10-of-11 from the free throw line.
Garden City started out hot making six of their first ten shots, finishing at 43.1% overall but just 4-of-15 from beyond the arc and 11-of-17 from the charity stripe.
Meyers connected on her first triple of the night to answer Garden City's ten straight to cut the deficit to 10-5 with 4:42 remaining in the opening quarter. The Cougars still faced a five point gap with 2:06 remaining when Lili Shubert canned her lone triple keying a 7-0 visitor stretch flipping the advantage as Kirchhoff's pair of charity tosses closed out the frame with Barton on top 18-15.
The Busters regained the lead twice in the early stages of the second period, the last being overtaken on a Lard to Womsi's three-point play putting Barton ahead 25-23 at the 7:55 mark. Following a Garden City 1-of-2 trip to the line, the Cougars strung eight straight for a nine point advantage, eventually building it out to thirteen just two minutes later on a 6-0 run led by the bench play from Alissa Heskamp and Grace John.
Enjoying a seven point lead at halftime, the lead grew back to twelve and remained at ten with just under four minutes left until Garden City made a big push making things interesting by rattling off six straight closing to within four.
Racheal Emmanuel's inside bucket was the lone point in the remaining 2:31 sending the teams to the final period with Barton up 56-50.
The six point margin was as close as the game would be the rest of the way as the Cougars won the quarter by eight points behind a mid-quarter 8-0 run over four minutes to seal away the victory and snap the Broncbusters two-game win streak in the series.