Tough start leads to long night for Barton women at Independence #GoBarton

Getting outscored 19-2 early by a red-hot Lady Pirates squad, the Barton Community College women were left trailing in a long Saturday night on the road by taking an 83-52 loss at Independence Community College. The defeat drops Barton to 4-3 in Jayhawk play and 7-4 overall while the Lady Pirates stay unbeaten in conference play atop the standings at 7-0 and 8-1 on the year. The Lady Cougars have two games left on the fall portion of the schedule, the first coming Wednesday in a 5:30 p.m. tip-off at the Barton Gym hosting Dodge City Community College (2-5, 4-5).

Independence was red-hot to begin the contest answering Jaylin Stapleton's opening trey with runs of eight and eleven points before dropping their fifth three-pointer to beat the first quarter buzzer for an early commanding 28-9 lead. The margin ballooned to twenty-two before a late second quarter spurt led by Stapleton's eleventh point of the half and a Juliana Chagas trey cut the deficit to fifteen but a pair of charity tosses sent Barton to the locker room looking up to a 43-26 score.

A Micaela Jellison three-pointer opened up the third quarter but the Lady Pirates exploded for ten straight points capped by Erica Moore's fourth three pointer. Madison Dirks countered with a triple of her own but four straight by Independence pushed the margin out to twenty-five. Six straight led by the no-fear attacking the lane by the 5'5" Stapleton cut the deficit to nineteen before the Lady Pirates closed out the quarter with a 6-2 advantage for a 65-42 lead.

An 8-0 run early in the fourth stretched the margin to twenty-nine points as the teams trudged through the final frame. Barton was able to cut it to twenty-two again behind a seven point personal run by Taylor Regan capped by a three-pointer before Independence put the final five on the board for the thirty-one point victory.

Stapleton's nineteen points and four steals led the Lady Cougars with Regan's late spurt giving her twelve on the night to go along with five rebounds.

Moore's twenty points behind 4-of-6 three-point shooting led four Lady Pirates in scoring on the night. 6'3" Australian Akek Akuen helped Independence dominate the boards in a fifteen rebound advantage by grabbing twelve on the night while dumping in thirteen points. Jessica Goodluck's 3-of-5 shooting behind the arc led to eleven points while Jessica Schoenberger also added eleven in an off-the-bench role.

Dodge City will come to the Barton Gym on Wednesday night on a three game slide, most recently dropping a 75-54 home loss to Butler Community College.

Other Game Notes:
- Independence now leads the overall series 20-15 and 5-3 in Independence
- The 31-point margin was the second most in the series coming on Independence victory (32pts – March 2, 2010 in 1st Round of playoffs in Independence
- The thirty-one point loss was the worse of the season for Barton as the previous most was twenty-points at Garden City on November 15
- Jaylin Stapleton has reached double-digit scoring for the seventh straight game
- Barton was held to a season low seven offensive rebounds and twenty defensive rebounds
- Barton gave up season high twenty-one offensive rebounds