Barber 1st All-West pick; three more Cougars earn recognition
The Barton County women's basketball team capped off a season to remember with 4 players earning recognition on the All Jayhawk West basketball team released Monday. Heading the lsit for Barton was sophomore point guard Andrea Barber, who was selected as a 1st team All-West pick. She was joined by teammates Inga Muciniece and LaToya Jackson on the 2nd team as well as Ipek Turkyilmaz as an honorable mention pick. The Cougars finished the season 27-3 but were ineligible for post season play.
Seward County's Tegan Cunningham was selected as both the Freshman of the Year and the Player of the Year in the West. Her coach, Toby Wynn, was selected as the Coach of the Year. Barber and Cunningham were joined on the 1st team by repeat selection Stanecia Graham of Cloud County as well as Kelsey Nelson of Cloud and Taushelle Rushing of Seward. All but Cunningham are sophomores but overall 9 of the 17 selections are freshmen.
Andrea Barber
Barber finished 2nd on the Cougars in scoring and led Barton in steals and assists from her point guard spot. The sophomore from Topeka also showed her ball handling skills from the point, finishing the year a 2.9-1 assist to turnover ration. In fact she had by far more steals (78) than turnovers (59).
Barber finished the season with a averaging 14.0 points, 5.7 assists, and 2.6 steals. She scored a career-high 29 points in a win at Cowley earlier this year – the highest scoring output by a Cougar during the year. In that contest, Barton hit 14-of-16 free throws, including 9-of-10 in the final minute of regulation and overtime. Barber's other career highs include 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Barber hit 50 3's and shot 82 percent from the free throw line. Barber will play at Southern Mississippi next season.
Inga Mucineice
During West play, Muciniece averaged a double-double, scoring 13.3 points and grabbing 12.2 rebounds in conference play. The 6-5 freshman also blocked 2.7 shots per contest in West play. For the season, Muciniece finished with a 9.9 scoring average and a 10.0 rebounding mark.
Muciniece had a season high of 21 points against Pratt and Seward and a high of 22 rebounds against Three Rivers (Mo). She finished the season with 14 double-doubles, including a pair of 4 straight double doubles during West play. Of her 14 double-doubles, 11 came during her 16 conference games. Muciniece had a season-high of 5 blocks and swatted 4 or more shots on 7 occasions on her way to a 2.1 blocks average.
LaToya Jackson
Jackson led Barton in scoring this season at 14.3 points per contest. She and Barber battled back-and-forth much of the season for the scoring lead with Jackson edging out Barber by 11 points. The freshman from Oklahoma City was 2nd on the team at 4.5 assists per contest, playing time at both the point guard spot and the 2-guard spot in Barton 4-guard starting rotation.
Jackson picked up her scoring during West play, averaging 15.1 points per contest in conference action. Jackson was also the top 3-point shooter in West play, hitting 41-of-95 for 43 percent. For the season she finished just behind Turkyilmaz in both 3-point categories. She scored a career-high 25 points in Barton's win over Three Rivers. Jackson posted double figure scoring in 15 of the 16 West games.
Ipek Turkyilmaz
Turkyilmaz spent the latter stages of the season chasing a season-record for 3-pointers, just coming up shy of the mark. Her 78 3's were 3 shy of the Barton single-season mark. Turkyilmaz hit 78-of-186 for 42 percent to lead what was a team-recording 3-point shooting season for the Cougars. Barton hit 242 3's this year, besting the old mark by nearly 20.
Turkyilmaz finished the season averaging 10.9 points per contest, 4th best on the team and was 2nd in rebounding at 4.8 per game. She also averaged 2.2 assists and 1.7 steals per game. Her season-high came at the ShootOut when she scored 23 in a win over Fort Scott. During the ShootOut she averaged 21.5 points a game, netting 11 3's in the 2 games, including a season-high 6 in a win over Highland. She had a stretch of 7 West games when she hit at least 3 treys.
All West
Coach of the Year – Toby Wynn, Seward
Player of the Year – Tegan Cunningham, Seward
Freshman of the year – Tegan Cunningham, Seward
1st Team
Tegan Cunningham, frosh, Seward
Stanecia Graham, soph, Cloud
Andrea Barber, soph, Barton
Kelsey Nelson, soph, Cloud
Taushelle Rushing, soph, Seward
2nd Team
Denae Stuckey, frosh, Butler
Inga Muciniece, frosh, Barton
Jamie Schroeder, soph, colby
LaToya Jackson, frosh, Barton
Chontaye Walter, frosh, Seward
Honorable Mention
Lakeisha Levi, frosh, Butler
Sharniece Saunders, frosh, Cloud
Chelsea Blackshear, soph, Seward
Patrice McKenzie, soph, Dodge
Megan Cherry, frosh, Butler
Ipek Turkyilmaz, frosh, Barton
Tessa Murrow, soph, Hutch
Stats
Full stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports