Barton impressive in 91-73 win at No. 5 Cloud; No. 3 Seward next
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team has no post season to play for this year nor does it have a Jayhawk West title it can win due to a department-wide probation. But the Cougars can finish with the best record in the West. With that goal in hand, the Cougars took a large step toward accomplishing that with an impressive 91-73 road win at No. 5 Cloud County Saturday night in Arley Bryant Gym. The Cougars led by 31 points in the opening half on the way to the win, which sets up a huge showdown Wednesday night at No. 3 Seward. One of Barton's (22-3) losses came to Seward earlier this year. The Cougars are currently 10-1 in the West and Seward (24-0) is 10-0 and leading the conference.
Highlights
If you're the No. 5 team in the country playing at home and commit just 9 turnovers against a pressure defense, the chances of winning are pretty high. But that wasn't case Saturday as Barton hammered Cloud in the opening with unbelievable 3-point shooting to grab a 31-point lead in the opening 20 minutes and take a 53-26 lead to halftime.
The Cougars knocked down a staggering 11-of-15 3-pointers in the opening half, led by freshman guard LaToya Jackson, who nailed 5-of-6 treys. Cloud led briefly 2-0 and 4-2 before the 3-point rain began. Andrea Barber started it with a 3-pointer at the 16:17 mark it didn't stop for the remainder of the half. Down 6-5 with 16 minutes to play (the final Cloud lead of the game), Barton scored on 8 of its next 9 possesions to take a 30-14 lead on the Thunderbirds with 7:20 to play.
During that stretch, Jackson hit 3 treys to go along with 3-pointers from Barber and Ipek Turkylimaz. The only misses during that stretch were a jumper by Barber that turned into a 3-pointer for Barber with an offensive rebound and a free throw by Turkymilaz. Jackson's 4th 3-pointer of the half pushed the Barton lead to 40-18 and started an 11-0 run found the Cougars leading the No. 5 ranked Thunderbirds 48-18 after Jackson hit her 5th and final trey of the opening half with 2:36 to play. When Barber hit Barton's final 3-pointer of the half to cap the 11-of-15 shooting in the opening 20 minutes, Barton had a 51-20 lead with just more than 1 minute to play in the half.
The closes Cloud would get in the 2nd half would be 16 points as Barton won for the 22nd time this year. Jackson paced the Cougars with 24 points on 6-of-10 3-point shooting. Barber added 4 treys and 20 points. Inga Muciniece posted her 11th double-double of the year with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Turkylimaz recorded her 2nd double-double with 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Gwen Edwards added 10 off the bench for the Cougars. Barber added 7 assists and Jackson 6 for Barton. After a 1-10 effort and just 2 points in the 1st half, Cloud's Stanecia Graham had a huge 2nd half, hitting 11-of-15 shots and ending with 25 points to lead 4 Cloud players in double figures.
Barton will now prepare for Seward in a place the Cougars haven't won the past 14 tries – the Green House in Liberal.
Stats
Full stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Wed, Feb 14 – at Seward, 6 pm (Jayhawk West play at the Green House in Liberal)