Cougars impressive at Pizza Hut Classic in Liberal
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team put perhaps its best back-to-back outings of the season together this weekend, winning a pair of games impressively at the Pizza Hut Classic in Liberal on the campus of Seward County. The Cougars rode a strong defensive effort to win the opener, 73-39 over Casper College (Wyom) then turned around and won by an 89-69 score Saturday on the strength of their shooting. Barton's wins runs the Cougars to mark to 10-1 this season. The Cougars will be off until Dec. 27 when they travel to Las Vegas, Nev. to play in the Dixie State College (Utah) Holiday Tournament. The Cougars will open play against Eastern Utah.

Highlights
The Cougars turned a sluggish contest early Friday into a commanding lead with a big run midway through the opening half. Leading just 8-6 more than 7 minutes into the game, the Cougars turned that lead into a 19-6 advantage and eventually a 27-9 lead with 5:13 left in the opening half. Capser didn't reach double figures in the half until the 4:53 mark. Barton, which started 1-for-13 from the field, finished the half with 26 more shots than Casper and a 31-20 lead.

Barton kept up the defensive pressure in the 2nd half and mixed in a 46 percent effort from the floor to dominate the Thunderbirds in the final 20 minutes. Barton outscored Casper 42-19 for the 34-point win. Krishunna Hellen led the way for Barton with 16 points. She was joined in double figures by Sunshine Misa-Uli with 11 and 7 rebounds – 6 offensive. ChrisDell Harris came in off the bench to grab 9 rebounds – 5 offensive as Barton had 29 offensive boards in the contest. Barton outrebounded the Thunderbirds by a 55-38 margin despite Capser starting 3 players at 6-2 or taller. Barton advantage in quickness forced Casper into 31 turnover which resulted in 31 Cougar points.

Saturday started much like Friday with the difference being the start was much more offensive. The game remained close for the opening 6 minutes as the two teams were knotted at 15-all. But a 15-0 run by the Cougars gave Barton a 30-15 lead. Barton hit 7 of its 1st 9 shots from the floor and kept up the good shooting in the win, hitting 50 percent from the field. It is just the 2nd time Barton has hit 50 percent from the field. The Cougars knocked down 37-of-74 shots and hit an impressive 6-of-12 from 3-point range.

Barton led by as many as 24 points it the win over NJC, which had beaten No. 11 Iowa Western by 24 points just more than a week ago. Maya Onikute was the brightest star of many for the Cougars, knocking down 9-of-12 shots for 18 points to go along with 11 rebounds from her guard spot. It was the 2nd double-double for Onikute, who leads Barton in rebounds at 7.5 per contest. She also had 4 steals and 4 assists with just 2 turnovers. Uli had another big game as well, hitting 7-of-9 shots from the field for 17 points. Six players reached double figures for the Cougars as Victoria Carlile added 11 in her hometown and Andrea Barber, Brianna Buchanan and Harris each added 10.

Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Tues., Dec. 27 – v Eastern Utah, 6 pm (Dixie State Tournament in Las Vegas, Nev)