The Barton Community College women's basketball team had a fourth quarter lead slip away Saturday afternoon on Hall of Fame Day at the Barton Gym in falling to first place Independence Community College 61-49.

The Cougars led by six after the opening quarter and by seven at the break, but second half action saw the Pirates tie it up at the end of the third quarter before rallying from three down in outscoring Barton 19-4 in the final 6:50 for the victory.

Barton falls to 8-8 in conference and 11-11 overall while Independence's season sweep improves the nationally receiving votes Pirates to 14-2 atop the standings and 18-3 overall.

Next up is a pair of road games, Wednesday at Coffeyville followed by a Saturday matinee at Cloud County. Barton's next home game comes Wednesday, February 9, in hosting Pratt for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off.

Shooting just 27% and committing 14 of Barton's 25 turnovers in second half action aiding the Pirates' comeback, Independence helped their cause with 14 steals in the game and canning 4-of-9 three pointers in the final ten minutes. Barton finished at just 37.3% after a 54% first quarter while Independence recovered from an 18.8% opening frame to finish at just 32.3% for the game.

Barton had a 41-34 edge on the glass, outrebounding its opponent for the 16th time of the season but were outscored by sixteen in the points off turnovers and by nineteen from the bench production.

Morgan Meyers's 15 points led three Cougars in double digits as Brennan Kirchhoff finished with 12 points. Jenny Nkem Womsi recorded her 9th double-double of the year behind an 11-point, 11-rebound effort. Mikaela Hall grabbed 9 rebounds, Acorionna Lard hauled down 7 boards in joining Meyers with a team high 5 assists.

Dropping 4-of-7 beyond the arc, Mira Kahan led the Pirates with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Miriam Bazylewicz came off the bench for 16 points and Maisa Marcal added 11 points.

Following the contest, Barton recognized its 2022 Sports Hall of Fame Inductees, Jeff Beaman from the tennis program, Christi (Ensz) Rife of the volleyball and basketball programs, and longtime booster and contributor David Foss.

RECAP
Barton scored the opening five points as Kirchhoff buried a trey and Womsi scored inside. Following a pair of Independence free throws, Meyers and Womsi added four and two points respectively pushing the margin to nine. The lead grew to Barton's largest of ten with 2:36 left following consecutive Womsi buckets for eight first quarter points but the Pirates tallied the final four points slicing into the lead.

Opening up at nearly 54% shooting, Barton cooled down to 37.5% despite Lili Shubert's trey to begin the second frame. Independence countered with their own triple and after a Meyers jumper, the Pirates strung six straight cutting the deficit to two. Meyers canned her first of three triples to keep Barton out front with Cora Anderson adding a low block shot keeping Barton out front. Hall would later score on consecutive possessions for the final four Barton points as the Cougars would go on to a seven point halftime lead following a late Pirate layup.

Barton had a rough start to the third frame's first five minutes, turning the ball over three times and missing their first five shots of their 25% quarter shooting. Independence capitalize on their end, scoring nine straight points in an 11-1 stretch in claiming their first lead 31-30. After stretching the gap to five following four straight, Kirchhoff's personal 5-0 run to end the quarter including knocking down a trey left the teams tied at 39.

Meyers' triple stretched the Barton run to eight straight in opening the final frame, knocking down another after the Pirates countered with their own trey. As fouls began to mount on Barton, whistled for four in the first 2:11 of the quarter, Independence added a pair of free throws on either side of and transition layup to surge back in front at 48-45 with Lard fouling out with 5:25 remaining.

Kirchhoff's back door cut halted a near four minute Barton and two minute scoring drought between the teams. The Pirates scored the next bucket a minute later but Kirchhoff's short jumper brought Barton back to within one just twelve seconds later. Unbeknownst to anyone, the score would be the last for the Cougars as Independence would bury a trio of three pointers in the next seventy seconds for a ten point lead with 1:11 to play in closing out the contest with the final eleven points.