Barton falls to defending National Champions

            The Barton County Community College women's basketball started off Jayhawk West action with a 70-59 loss to the defending National Champions, Cloud County, Wednesday night in Concordia.

            The loss dropped Barton County to 5-10 overall and 0-1 in conference play. Cloud County is now 13-2 and 1-0.

Highlights

            The Cougars looked to be in position to win their conference opener when Sarah Kendrick hit a 3-pointer from the left wing with 4:31 to play in the contest. That trey gave the Cougars a 59-58 lead. But that would end up being the final points the Cougars would score in the basketball game.

            Following that trey, the Cougars turned the ball over on three of the next four possessions as Cloud County retook the lead, increasing it to 65-59 during the turnover-plagued stretch for Barton.

            Tatjana Kiseljova led the way for the Cougars, tossing in 13 points. She also grabbed a team-high three steals and collected six rebounds. Lesley-Ann Minnis hit all five field goal attempts on her way to 12 points and Kendrick added 11. Jenny Brown, who returned to action Sunday in Sterling, Colo. after a sitting out more than a month with a stress fracture, led Barton with nine rebounds.

Next Up

            It's out of the frying pan and into the fire for the Cougar women as they head to Liberal Saturday to take on Seward County. While Cloud is the defending national champion, Seward County has not lost a regular season game in three years. Seward County is 15-0 this season after an 80-52 win at Hutchinson Wednesday over the previously unbeaten Blue Dragons.

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