Lady Cougars drop conference opener
Trailing throughout Saturday’s contest, the Barton Community College women’s basketball team opened up the 2013 Jayhawk Conference season by falling 70-59 to Seward County Community College in Liberal. Playing their first game since December 9, the Lady Cougars trailed by as many as thirteen against the pre-season conference favorite Lady Saints but battled back numerous times to cut the deficit to four but Seward always had an answer. Barton drops to 10-4 on the season while Seward improves to 10-4. The Lady Cougars will debut Barton’s new gym floor “L.T. and Sheila Fleske Court” on Monday as they host Dodge City Community College at 5:30 p.m. It will be the second game in three days as the Lady Cougars are in the midst of a four-game conference week as Barton will travel to Garden City on Wednesday then host Butler Community College on Saturday.
Ashton Bruner was the lone Lady Cougar reaching double-figures as she score twenty-one while grabbing eight rebounds. Blair Bloomfield led Barton in rebounding with nine while Kailai Brantner dished out six assists to gain team honors. Freshman Jackie Bueno stepped up and produced her best game as a Lady Cougar scoring a career high eight points.
Leading the Lady Saints in scoring was Fabiana Monte's eighteen, twelve coming from behind the arc, as she sparked the Seward attack early. Marta Oledza, the 6'6" sophomore from Poland, scored sixteen and grabbed a team high nine rebounds. Ricquia Jones led the Lady Saints on both ends of the floor in dishing out six assists and four steals.