Cougars win overtime contest with Eastern Oklahoma; finish 2-0 at Classic

Cougars win overtime contest with Eastern Oklahoma; finish 2-0 at Classic
The Barton Community College women's basketball team swept a pair of games at the Booster Club Classic this past weekend on its home floor. The Cougars held off Eastern Oklahoma for a 78-77 overtime win Friday then doubled up the Central Christian JV, 94-47 Saturday. The wins move Barton to 5-2 for the season and were the final home games before the conference season kicks off in January. Barton will be in Moberly (Mo) this weekend for action in its classic against Moberly and State Fair (Mo).

Highlights
After falling behind early in the contest by a 7-0 score, the Cougars went on a 13-0 run to take a lead which held nearly the entire basketball game. On just a couple of occasions did Eastern Oklahoma grab a slight lead in the opening half. Barton led by 38-31 at halftime and quickly pushed that lead to 10 in the 2nd half. Barton led most of the 2nd half by 5-10 points, including a 66-59 lead with just 1:24 to play in the game. But a pair of 3-pointers in the next minute by the Mountaineers cut the lead to 66-65 and when Eastern hit a jumper with 10 seconds to play the contest was tied at 67-all – the 1st time Barton hadn't led since the 3:47 mark of the opening half.

Barton again quickly established a lead in the overtime as Courtney Sturdivant scored on a layup and Kristine Silaraja on a 3-pointer for a 72-67 lead in the opening minute. But Eastern came back to take its 1st lead of the game since that 3:47 mark of the 1st half when the Mountaineers took a 75-74 lead with 1:35 to play. Michelle White gave Barton the lead back with 1:13 left on a layup but a pair of free throws by Kelly Adams see-sawed the lead back to Eastern 77-76 with 25 seconds left. Sturdivant gave Barton the lead back on a jumper with 5 seconds to play but committed a foul with 2 seconds left giving Adams a chance to put Eastern back on top. But this time she missed both free throws as Barton held on for the 1-point win.

Silaraja led Barton with 24, hitting 5-of-8 3's in the process. She also had 4 steals. Sturdivant added 14 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Samira Harper scored 13 and grabbed 8 boards while Brooke Conley recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Adams scored 21 to lead the Mountaineers.

Saturday Barton jumped to a 21-4 lead on the Central Christian JV and never looked back. Kimber Weiser led Barton with 17 points, hitting 3 treys en route to the game-high total. Shelby Hillman added 14 and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Jordi James scored 13, Tressie Todd 12, and Danielle Bird 11 in the win.

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

Next
Nov 28 – v Moberly (Mo) 6 pm (Moberly Classic at Moberly, Mo)
Nov 29 – v State Fair (Mo) 2 pm (Moberly Classic at Moberly, Mo)