Barton women snap Seward streak emphatically, lock up No. 2 West seed

Barton women snap Seward streak emphatically, lock up No. 2 West seed
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team finally took down the Seward County Saints. It had been 6 years and 13 basketball games between the schools since the Cougars last knocked off Seward County in the 2000 Region VI Championship contest. That is no longer the case after a convincing 76-50 over Seward Saturday night at the Barton County Gym in the regular season finale. The 26-piont win ended the 12-game skid against Seward and gave the Cougars a 2nd place finish in the Jayhawk West and the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Region VI tournament. Barton, now 25-5 overall and 12-4 in the West, will take on Neosho County (9-21) Wednesday night at 7 pm in the Barton County Gym to open the post season. Admission is free by getting a ticket at 6 locations around Great Bend. Seward fell to 10-6 in the West and 24-6 overall. The Saints will host Independence in 1st round play.

Highlights
Barton fell behind in the early stages, 7-0, but quickly got back in the contest and took a 13-12 lead on a fast-break bucket by Andrea Barber. The two teams exchanged the lead 5 times in the opening half before going to halftime deadlocked at 32-all – the 2nd tie of the half.

That 2nd half would be a much different story. Barton exploded out of the halftime locker room. Brianna Buchanan drilled a 3-pointer less than 5 seconds into the half and, for all practical purposes, the rout was on. Barber and Buchanan both hit jumpers over the next minute and Sharece Love added a free throw and Barton had the 1st 8 points of the half and a 40-32 lead with 18 minutes to play. But the Cougars weren't done. Far from it. Buchanan hit another 3 and Barber scored off a Love steal before Love capped off a 15-0 run with a hoop of her own. By the time the dust cleared on the opening 4 minutes of the 2nd half, the Cougars led 47-32.

Seward would respond to make it 49-39 but the Saints would never get the game under double digits. Barton finished with the final 8 points of the game to push the lead to 26 points by the final buzzer. During the 2nd half, Barton outscored Seward in points off turnovers by a 20-4 margin. For the game, Barton had 37 points off 34 Seward turnovers.

Barber led the Cougars with 14 points followed by Buchanan and Stephanie N'Garsanet with 10. N'Garsanet also had 10 rebounds to grab her 2nd double double of the season. Maya Onikute also had a good game with 8 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals. Love was great on defense as usually, grabbing 4 steals. Ilda Chambe led Seward with 14. But it was the lack of scoring from Brio Rode that was a big key. After dropping 32 on Barton in Seward County, the guard was only able to 5 shots against a suffocating Barton defense for just 2 points.

The Cougars will now host Neosho County in the 1st round of the Region VI playoffs in what will be the final game of the year in the Barton County Gym. If the Cougars win, they will play Saturday in Wichita at 3 pm against the winner of Garden City at Allen County. Semifinals and Finals will be Monday and Tuesday at Koch Arena on the campus of Wichita State.

Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Wed., March 8 – v Neosho County, 6 pm (Region VI 1st round at the Barton County Gym)