Barton women roll to easy road win

            The Barton County women's basketball made things look easy at time Wednesday night, but had to stave off a pesky Colby team to secure an 87-75 win at the Community Building in Colby. The win moved Barton to 4-11 in the Jayhawk West and 9-20 overall. Colby ends its season at 2-14 and 8-22. 

Highlights

            Barton County led by as many as 23 points in the first half, but saw Colby cut that lead down to three on a couple of occasions in the second half. But the Cougars did the right things down the stretch to pull away for the 12-point win.

            The Cougar press caused Colby fits in the first half, forcing the Trojans into 15 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes, helping the Cougars to a 49-28 lead at the intermission. But Colby hit 53 percent from the floor in the second half, including a stellar 8-for-11 on 3-pointers to come surging back into the contest. But Barton hit 49 percent itself in the second 20 minutes to fight off the Trojans.

            Sarah Kendrick had a career-high 26 points to lead the Cougars, hitting 9-of-13 shots from the floor and 8-of-9 free throws. Kendrick also tied a career-highs with seven assists and seven rebounds in the win. Just to add to her line, Kendrick snagged four steals. Briana Book added 19 points and four assists, Jenny Brown 12 points, and Melissa Cox 11 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

            Colby was led by Serra Sanger with 21 points and nine rebounds.

Next Up

            Barton County has one game left in the regular season. The Cougars will host Pratt Saturday night at 6 p.m. Pratt enters the game with a 6-9 West mark and an 18-11 overall record.

Playoffs

            Barton County has locked up the No. 7 seed in the West, which means a first round road game for the Cougars Tuesday night. The first round opponent will be Fort Scott, which has now lost three games in a row in the East after starting off 14-0 in the conference. The two teams played earlier this year with Fort Scott winning a 52-51 contest at the Jayhawk ShootOut.

Stats

            Game boxes and cumulative stats can be found at the following website.

Barton County Women's Basketball at http://www.barton.cc.ks.us/sports/WB_01-02/wbasketball_01-02.htm