Barton makes it 6 straight; hosts No. 9 Cloud County Saturday
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team has taken care of business and can now look forward to back-to-back home games against the only 2 teams that have beaten the Cougars this season. Barton polished off Dodge City Wednesday night at the Civic Center in Dodge, rolling to a 95-61 win over the Conquistadors. The win was the 6th straight for Barton. The Cougars are now 22-2 overall this season and 8-2 in the Jayhawk West. Cloud County, a big winner over Barton in Concordia earlier this year, will visit the Barton Gym Saturday in a showdown of Top 15 teams. Barton is ranked No. 15 and Cloud No. 9. Seward, also a winner over the Cougars in Liberal, will come to the Barton Gym Wednesday.
Highlights
Barton fell behind 7-0 early in the contest, but it didn't take long for the Cougars to turn it around. A 13-0 run gave Barton a 13-7 lead and the Cougars would not trail again in the contest. Before the half ended, Barton had runs of 13-0, 10-0, and 9-0 on its way to a 44-26 halftime lead. It was a half that saw a pair of Cougars put up some dominate numbers as freshman Kristine Silaraja scored 17 points in the half and sophomore Inga Muciniece grabbed 15 rebounds in the 1st 20 minutes to go with 11 points of her own.
In the 2nd half, Barton never led by less than 30 in the final 16 minutes with the Cougars biggest lead coming with 3 minutes to play at 93-51. Silaraja finished with a career-high 29 points in the win, leading 4 Barton players in double figures. The 29 points were the highest total since Wendy Okeson scored 32 at the NJCAA Tournament her final game as a Cougar in March of 2000. Andrea Barber scored 29 in a contest last season and KG Hellen once the previous season.
Jessica Halsig had a big 2nd half for Barton, scoring 16 in the half and finishing with19 for the game. Muciniece added 13 points to go along with a season-high 19 rebounds. Her career-high is 22. Ipek Turkyilmaz added 10 points and a game-high 9 assists for Barton.
The Cougars can now safely look ahead to the Cloud game and turn focus to a little bit of revenge. Barton played its worst game of the season in Concordia, much due to the defensive pressure of the Thunderbirds, in a 74-55 loss. Cloud led by as many as 29 in the contest which the Cougars entered 16-0 and ranked No. 3 in the country. Tip will be at 6 pm in the Barton Gym.
Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Sat Feb 9 – v Cloud, 6 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton Gym in Great Bend)