Barton takes 4th place at NJCAA Tournament

Barton takes 4th place at NJCAA Tournament
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team finished 4th at the NJCAA National Tournament, losing in a thrilling contest to Arkansas-Fort Smith in the 3rd place game at the Bicentennial Center Saturday. The Cougars lost 81-79 in overtime to the Lions to finish their season at 34-4. Fort Smith ends its season with a 34-2 record. Freshman guard Kristine Silaraja poured in 38 points for the 3rd most points ever for a player in a game at Barton. It is the highest Cougar total of any individual at the NJCAA Tournament. The Cougars finished the season tied for the most win in school history with those 34 wins as well as ending with highest finish at the NJCAA in school history, matching the efforts of the 1981 and 1990 teams. Gulf Coast (Fla) won the NJCAA Championship with a 62-61 win over Central Arizona.

Highlights
Barton jumped out to a big lead in the game, getting an 8-2 lead on the Lions which grew to 19-9, 29-13 and eventually a high of 18 points at 33-15 with 8 minutes to play in the half. During that hot beginning, Silaraja knocked down 5 3-pointers including back-to-back trips on 2 different occasions. She scored 8 straight in a 10-0 Barton run at one point.

After grabbing the 18-point lead, the Cougars would score just 6 mores points in the final 8 minutes – 3-pointers by Silaraja at the 6:41 and 4:13 marks of the half.  Fort Smith ended the opening 20 minutes with an 8-0 run to cut the halftime margin to 39-24.

The Lions continued to work down the Barton lead, eventually tying the contest at 42-all in the early stages of the 2nd half. Fort Smith took its 1st lead of the game with 5:17 to play. Barton briefly took the lead back on a Jessica Halsig 3-pointer and still led 52-48 when Halsig hit her 3rd 3-pointer of the 2nd half – the 300th on the season for the Cougars – with 12:42 to play. But the Cougars saw that lead quickly dissipate on back-to-back treys by the Lions that started a 25-8 run over the next 7 minutes to take a 73-61 lead with just 4:45 left in the contest.

But the Cougars weren't done. Barton would allow Fort Smith only 2 field goals over the final 4:45 while the Cougars knocked down 3 more treys – one each by Halsig, Ipek Turkyilmaz and Silaraja. Silaraja's came with 52 seconds left and Barton down 77-72. Silaraja then tied the game at 77-all at the buzzer on a runner in the lane as she continued to torch the Lions.

The teams would trade the lead in the overtime period with the Cougars once again down 2 with the ball in the final seconds. This time Silaraja wasn't able to send the game to a 2nd overtime as her shot bounded off, giving Barton 4th at the tournament.

Silaraja's 38 points ties her with Allison Stucky at No. 3 all-time at Barton. Stucky scored 38 in 1993. The only player to have scored more in a game at Barton is Wendy Okeson, who scored 42 as a sophomore in 2000 against Cloud County and 39 as a freshman against Dodge City. She hit 8-of-10 3-pointers to tie teammate Turkyilmaz for the most 3-pointers made in a game. Turkyilmaz had a big game as well for Barton, recording the team's 1st triple double of the season with 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists her final game a Cougar. The sophomore from Turkey will leave Barton tied with the record for 3's in a game and the record holder for most 3's in a  season and career. Halsig added 12 points and Inga Muciniece, the all-time leader in rebounds for a season and career at Barton, finished her career with a 12-rebound effort to go with 6 blocks. Muciniece is also the single season shot block leader and became the all-time shot block leader with her 6 blocks against Fort Smith. That gave her 182 for her career, 1 better than the 181 of Shelia Hubert set in 1981-83.

Fort Smith had 3 players in double figures led by Katorra Lewis with  26, Tanisha Smith with 22 and Elisa Shoate with 18.

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

Next 
Season complete with 34-4 record