Broncbusters fall at home

Garden City, KS-Another game, another decisive rebounding advantage for the opposition. 

Vivian Onugha had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Vera Ojenuwa chipped in 14 and 11, and Barton thoroughly beat Garden City on the glass, 44-20 en route to a 63-53 victory Wednesday Night at Conestoga Arena.  

It was the third straight game in which Garden City was outrebounded, two of those have been by 20 plus.  

"We had some good shots, but we just didn't knock them down," Head Coach, Greg Franklin said. "We were outrebounded, 44-20 and only lost by 10, so that tells me we just aren't very tough right now." 

Sierra Driessen scored 15 points in 38 minutes for the Broncbusters, which lost their third straight game to drop them to 10-5 overall and 5-5 in conference.  

"We have to find ourselves and be a little tougher," Franklin said. "We should never get outrebounded by 24."

The Broncbusters never led in the game. They trailed by six after one and were down 13 after Onugha grabbed Grace John's missed jumper and stuck it back home for a 24-11 advantage with 6:10 to play in the second. Later in the half, John whipped a pass to Tatum Boettjer, who wiggled free behind an Onugha pick before burying a 19-footer to give the Cougars a 33-17 advantage. Barton was up nine at the intermission.  

"We have to get out of our own way," Franklin explained.  

Antonicia Moultrie knocked down a shock-clock beating 3-pointer to pull the Broncbusters within six 30 seconds into the third. But that's as close as they got the rest of the way. Garden City managed just a single bucket over the final 8:43 of the quarter, Barton ripped off 11 straight points, and the Cougars led 46-29 going to the fourth.  

"You're not going to win a lot of games if you can't knock down shots," Franklin added.  

Onugha's layup midway through the final period gave the Cougars their largest lead of the game, 53-35.  

Boettjer finished with 16 points for Barton, which won their fifth straight game to improve to 12-3 overall and 7-2 in conference. John tallied nine assists, and Onugha added five steals.