Barton loses West opener at No. 15 Cloud

Barton loses West opener at No. 15 Cloud
The Barton Community College women's basketball team has about as tough a start to a conference season as a team can get with road games at traditional West powers Cloud County and Seward County. The Cougars opened that stretch with a loss at Concordia Saturday to No. 15 Cloud County 93-75. Barton falls to 10-5 on the season with the loss and 0-1 in the West while Cloud improves to 13-2 overall and 1-0. Things aren't any easier as Barton travels to Liberal to take on the 13-2 Saints Wednesday, who are coming off a 90-72 road win at Hutchinson to start West play.

Highlights
Barton got off to a good start at Arley Bryant Gym, leading for a good portion of the opening half of action. Barton played most of the half without the services of guards Courtney Sturdivant and Michelle White who both picked up two early fouls in the contest. But the Cougars rode the scoring of Kristine Silaraja along with strong bench play while Barton's starting guard sat on the bench. The Cougars led by as many as 6 in the opening half and still led 33-30 with just 4 minutes to play in the half. But Cloud closed out those 4 minutes strong, ending the half with a 12-2 run to take a 42-35 lead to the locker room.

The Cougars hung around for much of the 2nd half, trailing just 55-52 with 12 minutes to play before another Cloud run gave the Thunderbirds their 1st double digit lead of the game. Cloud went on a 11-4 run to push the lead 66-56 on its way to the win.

Silaraja led Barton with 20 points, hitting 6-of-9 shots from the floor as she continues to hit better than 50 percent on the season hitting 54 percent from the floor and 49 percent on 3-pointers. Jordi James added 18 for the Cougars and remains the team's 2nd leading scorer for the year behind Silaraja. Samira Harper added 13 off the bench for the Cougars. Cloud was led by Carolyn Blair-Mobley with 21 and Jermaine Kermis with 19 as the T-Birds put 4 players in double figures. Cloud pounded the paint for 58 points in the contest and scored 35 points off Barton's 24 turnovers. The contest saw a combined 56 fouls and 76 free throws.

Barton will travel to Liberal Wednesday to take on the Saints who scored an impressive win at Hutchinson Saturday over a Blue Dragon team that was 13-1 going into the contest. Barton has won just 1 time since 1992 at the Green House.

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

Next
Jan 7 – at Seward 6 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Green House in Liberal)