Barton women storm out of the gates for needed victory

The Barton Community College women's basketball team scored the first seven points Saturday afternoon at the Barton Gym and never looked back in a 62-50 win over Allen County Community College to sweep the season series.  The victory snapped a three game slide improving Barton to 9-10 in conference play and 12-11 overall while dropping Allen County 6-13 in the Jayhawk and 7-16 overall.  The Lady Cougars will next travel to southeast Kansas for a Wednesday 6:00 p.m. tip at Independence Community College.

The Lady Cougars didn't score the first point until the 8:19 mark with a Jalisa Jones jumper but then Megan Jirak put five on the board next capped by the first of her three treys in the game getting Barton off to the 7-0 start.  The lead would grow to ten twice but the fast start would be the lone difference of the quarter as Barton would take an 18-11 lead to the second.   Holding the Red Devils to just five points in the second frame, the Lady Cougars were exactly lighting up the scoreboard but did finish off the last 4:31 with a Lauren Welsch and Jirak long range shot to carry a 28-16 advantage to the locker room.

Katrina Roenfeldt got the second half scoring with a trey followed by Jirak's fourteenth point in a twenty-one minutes of play to quickly expand the lead out to a game high seventeen point margin.  The Red Devils put together a 9-2 spurt in the next three-plus minutes highlighted by six Kamri Summons points and a Tamara Shaver three-pointer to cut the deficit to ten with 5:19 left in the quarter.  Barton would hold off the charge allowing the margin to only reach nine midway through the fourth before Roenfeldt's second trey of the game halted any kind of Red Devil comeback.

Jirak's nineteen points tied for game high honors while leading the Lady Cougars in a solid all-around game.  Going 3-of-7 from beyond the arc, Jirak tied Roenfeldt for team high rebound honors with seven and joined Jones in distributing four assists each.  Micaela Jellison gave the Lady Cougars a boos off the bench pouring in fifteen points with Jones adding nine, Roenfeldt eight points, and Welsch contributing seven off the bench.

The Red Devils also just had two players in double figures with Summons leading the way with nineteen and Damonica Franklin adding eleven while sharing team high rebound honors with Sequerah Alleyne with eight each.