Barton wins two more in impressive fashion; now 5-0 on season

Barton wins two more in impressive fashion; now 5-0 on season
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team once again looked impressive over the weekend as the Cougars rolled to a pair of wins, including a win over No. 22 Coffeyville during the Barton Classic at the Barton County Gym. The 25th ranked Cougars won Friday night 102-40 over Eastern Oklahoma and followed with a 79-51 win over the 22nd ranked Red Ravens Saturday. Barton is now 5-0 on the season and is winning by an average score of 88-44. In other action at the Classic No. 1 ranked Seward County was beaten by Coffeyville Friday afternoon 71-68 then rallied to beat Eastern Oklahoma 59-56 Saturday. Barton will be back at home again this weekend when the Cougars conclude their home non-conference portion of the schedule by hosting Kirkwood (Iowa) and No. 18 Northeastern Oklahoma in the Booster Club Classic.

Highlights
Barton put the hammer down on the Mountaineers early Friday, jumping out to a 25-2 lead 7 minutes into the game. Barton led 62-22 by halftime as the Cougars drained 10 1st half 3-pointers. By game's end, Barton had tied the school record for 3-pointers in a game with 16, hitting 16-of-34 shots from the floor. The Cougars shot 51 percent for the game, hitting a sizzling 23-of-41 shots in the opening half of play.

Jessica Halsig led 6 Cougars in double figures with 16 points followed by Ipek Turkyilmaz and Kris Lacio with 15 each. Shelby Hillman added 14, Brooke Conley 11 and Inga Muciniece 10. Halsig, Lacio and Conley each made 3 treys on the night. Muciniece handed out 6 assists from her post position to lead Barton – many of those back the guards for 3-pointers.

Barton and Coffeyville battled to a 26-22 halftime which saw both teams struggle to score again the others' defense. Barton hit just 9-of-39 shots from the floor while Coffeyville connected on just 7-of-27 as both teams failed to reach 26 percent in the half. Things didn't change much for the Red Ravens in the 2nd half they hit just 26 percent (10-of-38) but the Cougars warmed up, knocking down a 20-of-33 shots for 61 percent from the floor.

Courtney Sturdivant led that 2nd half surge, hitting 7-of-9 shots from the field and the trio of Muciniece, Halsig, and Kristine Silaraja combined to shoot 10-of-15. The Cougars opened the game up with an 11-0 run that took the score from 31-24 with 17:40 to play to 42-24 just 2 minutes later. Sturdivant scored 6 in the run – 4 points on layups on steals by Halsig and Silaraja. Another 8-0 run later in the half pushed the lead to 65-41 with 4 minutes to play. The Cougars continued to distance themselves from the Red Ravens the rest of the way for the 28-point win.

Silaraja led Barton with 21 points followed by Sturdivant with 15 – all in the 2nd half. Halsig ended with 14 and Muciniece added 13 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Halsig and Silaraja each had 4 steals as the Cougars forced Coffeyville into 27 turnovers.

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

Next 
Fri Nov 16 – v Kirkwood (Ia), 6 pm (Booster Club Classic at the Barton Gym in Great Bend) 
Sat Nov 17 – v Northeastern Oklahoma, 6 pm (Booster Club Classic at the Barton Gym in Great Bend)