Big start leads Barton women to cruise control victory #GoBarton

Playing its third game in four days, the Barton Community College women's basketball team utilized a full squad of players Monday night at the Barton Gym for a cruise control 91-55 victory over the reserve squad from Kansas Wesleyan University.

The victory improves the Lady Cougars to 3-2 on the year in keeping the Coyotes winless in three contests of the early season. Barton's next action is this weekend in the Best Western/Cougar Booster Club Classic featuring eight games in two days of action.

Barton's first opponent is on Friday against Jefferson College (3-0) with Labette Community College (2-1) the Lady Cougars' Saturday opponent. Tip-off slated for 5:30 p.m. for each contest.

The Lady Cougars scored Monday's first seven points then went on a 10-0 run to explode the lead out to 17-2. The second wave of Cougars hit the floor at the 5:57 mark to hold the margin for an eventual eighteen point 28-10 score ending the opening quarter.

With eleven players inking their name in the scoring column, the game settled in with Barton adding to the margin by just two points for a 50-30 score.

Queen Ulabo heated up in the second frame adding ten more points to her output for fifteen first half points. Fouling out early in the fourth, Ulabo tied for the team lead with seventeen points on 7-of-10 shooting in fifteen minutes upon the L.T. and Sheila Fleske Court.

Cooling off from a sizzling 67% first half shooting display to 40% in the second frame, Barton did find some range from long distance knocking down four in the final ten minutes as Vanessa Oduah drained a pair to finish with eleven points and a game high five assists.

Flirting with her first collegiate double-double, Hannah Valentine also drained a fourth quarter triple closing out her 50% shooting night to tie Ulabo with seventeen points while grabbing a team high nine rebounds to go along with four assists.

Two additional Lady Cougars reached double-digits on the night as Kolby Davis tallied thirteen while Richelle Turney reached double figures for the fourth straight game in contributing ten.

Lauren Brown led the Coyotes with eighteen points with Caila Hill adding ten and squad leading eight rebounds.

This weekend's Classic also features the national ranked teams from Hutchinson Community College. The 7th ranked Blue Dragon women will tip-off at 1:00 p.m. each day, taking on Labette in Friday's action followed by Jefferson on Saturday. The men, also ranked 7th in the latest NJCAA Division I poll, play the 3:00 p.m. game in first taking on nationally receiving votes Monroe College in Friday's matchup before wrapping up their time in Great Bend on Saturday against the Reivers of Iowa Western Community College.

The Cougar men will play each day's nightcap at 7:30 p.m., Friday's opponent being the Oklahoma City Storm with Monroe concluding the two days of action.