Barton makes it 9 straight with win at Dodge; remained tied for West lead

Barton makes it 9 straight with win at Dodge; remained tied for West lead
The Barton Community College women's basketball team didn't play its prettiest basketball game of the season, but managed to coast to an easy win Saturday afternoon in Dodge City. Barton won its 9th straight of the season with a 70-54 win over Dodge at the Civic Center. The win kept Barton tied for the top spot in the Jayhawk West, improving to 9-2 in conference action and 19-6 overall. Barton is currently tied with Cloud County and Hutchinson for the top spot in the West with Seward one game back. The Conquistadors fell to 0-11 in the West and 4-21 overall. The Cougars will back in action Wednesday night when Garden City will pay a visit to the Barton Gym for a 6 pm tip.

Highlights
The sluggish effort by the Cougars should not have come unexpectedly. Barton played the contest without its starting point guard and pre-season All American Courtney Sturdivant, who rested an injured knee during the win. Her return is expected sometime soon. Barton was also playing its 4th game in 8 days and was coming off a pair of wins over then conference leaders in Cloud and Seward County earlier in the week.

Barton started the game like there would be no letdown, bolting to a 15-0 lead and eventually a high of 19-3 just 8 minutes into the game. Dodge would whittle the lead to 12 at one point, but Baton cruised into halftime with a comfortable 35-14 lead. The Cougars hit nearly 50 percent of its shots in the opening half and dominated the inside play, outscoring Dodge 26-4 in the paint.

The Conqs, though, would come back in the 2nd half and at least put a slight scare into Barton momentarily. Dodge matched it entire 1st half point total of 14 in the 1st 5 minutes of the 2nd half, cutting the Barton lead to 40-28 with 15 minutes left. The Cougars pushed that lead back to 17 but an 11-1 run by Dodge took the Barton lead all the way to 7 at 53-46 with 5:22 to play. Brooke Conley ended that run with a 3-pointer and another 3-pointer later by Danielle Bird after Dodge had cut the lead to 58-50 put the game away and Barton coasted in the final minutes for the win.

Conley led the Cougars in scoring for the 2nd straight game netting 21 points after posting a career-high 22 in the win over Seward. Kristine Silaraja added 10 points and 6 assists. Michelle White had 9 points, 6 assists and 5 steals to go with 6 rebounds in another big all-around effort from the freshman. Samantha Askew had a big day for the Conquistadors, scoring 20 points and grabbing 19 rebounds in the loss.

Barton will look to keep pace the West leaders Wednesday as Garden City visits the Cougars. Garden is currently 3-7 in the West and 9-15 overall.

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

Next
Feb 11 – v Garden 6 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton Gym in Great Bend)