The Barton Community College women's basketball team ran into another quality opponent in day two of the Best Western Angus Inn/Cougar Booster Club Classic, falling 52–42 to Redlands Community College on Saturday evening.
Closing out the non-conference slate at 2–4, Barton now shifts its attention to Wednesday's Jayhawk Conference opener as the Cougars host No. 2 Dodge City Community College at 5:30 p.m. Redlands, posting a pair of weekend victories, improves to 5–1 on the season.
Much like Friday's outing, the Cougars opened strong, riding five early points from Regina Donanu to a 7–1 lead. But the offense stalled for more than five minutes as Redlands surged ahead and carried an 11–9 edge into the first break.
The drought extended deep into the second quarter until another Donanu jumper at the 5:40 mark halted a 15–0 Redlands run. The visiting Cougars followed with a pair of triples, and although Christal Long briefly stopped the momentum with an inside bucket, another Redlands three pushed Barton into a 27–11 halftime deficit.
Barton regrouped out of the locker room with nine straight points—seven from Donanu and a tough jumper by Mary Akinde—to close within 27–20. Redlands countered out of the 4:24 media timeout, scoring five straight and knocking down its fifth three-pointer of the evening. Donanu and Akinde accounted for all of Barton's third-quarter scoring as the Cougars trimmed the margin to 34–27 heading to the final frame.
Redlands opened the fourth with seven unanswered to stretch the lead back to 45–31, creating the cushion it needed to ride out the double-digit advantage in the night's highest-scoring quarter.
Struggling to generate consistent offense in a 34-percent shooting effort, Barton found its bright spot in Donanu, who led all scorers for the second straight game with a career-high 26 points while adding seven rebounds. Akinde contributed eight points, a game-best nine rebounds, and three blocked shots.
Redlands showcased a balanced attack with ten players scoring, led by Karlee Harviston's nine points and Myracle Washington's eight.