Cougars have easy time in opening round of Region VI play; beat Neosho 104-23
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team breezed through its opening round of the Region VI Tournament Wednesday night with a resounding 104-23 win over Neosho. Barton, the top seed from the West and ranked No. 7 in the NJCAA went on a 19-0 early in the game and were never challenged as the Cougars equaled their biggest win this year in the 81-point win. The Cougars will take their 29-2 record into the quarterfinal against another 25-win team in Labette. Labette (25-6) spent much of the season ranked in the Top 25 but fell out late in the year. The two teams will battle at 7 pm Saturday at Koch Arena in Wichita. It will be the final quarterfinal game of the tournament for the women.

Highlights
Neosho took a 2-0 lead in the contest followed by 19 straight Barton points and the onslaught had begun. The lead reached 30 (39-8) with 6:43 to play, 40 (50-10) with 3:33 to play and eventually 50 (60-10) at halftime.

Six different Cougars reached double figures in the game led by Courtney Sturdivant with 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Ipek Turkyilmaz moved to within 1 3-pointer of tying the school record, hitting 4 in the game and ending with 16 points. Inga Muciniece added 14, Kristine Silaraja 13 and Shelby Hillman and Cenquis Curry 10 each. The 10 for Curry was a career-high. Every player on the Cougar team scored and no player logged more than 22 minutes and no player fewer than 16 minutes.

Neosho's leading scorer – Fila Smith – was held scoreless by the relentless Barton defense, going 0-for-7 from the floor. No Panther had more than 6 points. As team, Neosho hit 9-of-51 from the floor and 0-for-12 on 3-pointers.

The Cougars and Labette will conclude the quarterfinals played over 2 days Saturday evening at Koch Arena. Prior to the Barton-Labette game, Independence and Hutchinson will play with the winners meeting in the semifinals Monday at 3 pm. The top half of the bracket will play its quarterfinals Friday. Coffeyville and Cloud County will play each other 1st with Cowley and Seward County battling in the other quarterfinal.

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

Next 
Sat March 8 – v Labette, 7 pm (Region VI quarterfinals at Koch Arena in Wichita)