Barton moves into NJCAA semifinals with 55-45 win over Southeastern Illinois
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team has reached a spot only two previous Cougar teams have been – the NJCAA National Semifinals. Barton reached that destination with a 55-45 win over Southeastern Illinois Thursday night at the Bicentennial Center in Salina. The Cougars defense shut down the usually good-shooting Falcons en route to the win. Barton will now get the No. 1 ranked team in the NJCAA the No. 1 seed in the tournament when it takes on Central Arizona Friday night at 8 pm in semifinal action. Barton will be looking to reach the finals for the 1st time in school history with a win. The Cougars are now 34-2 on the season while Central Arizona is 33-0. Southeastern Illinois fell to 32-3 with the loss.

Highlights
Barton used a 10-0 early in the contest to grab a 10-2 lead and the Cougars never trailed the rest of the night. Southeastern Illinois would get within four points on a couple of occasions in the opening half but Barton would spend much of the remainder of the game leading by double digits.

The Cougars defense shutdown the Falcons, who came into the contest scoring 75 points a contest and shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor in its 1st 34 games. Barton, however, limited Southeastern to its lowest point total of the season in 45 points and held the Falcons to just 31 percent shooting on 21-of-68 from the field. The previous low total for the season was 52 points.

Barton took a 28-21 lead to halftime and quickly pushed it to double digits on a 3-pointer by Jessica Halsig. The lead grew to 16 points at 41-25 with 15 minutes to play – about the same time frame Barton has hit a dry spell its last 3 games and let it opponents back in the game. This time the Cougars continued to expand the lead and it grew to as high as 44-25.

Southeastern did have a run in them late in the contest. Barton led 50-32 with 8 minutes to play when the Falcons went on a 13-3 run to make it 53-45 with 3 minutes to play – the only time the lead would get under 10 after the opening basket of the half. But Southeastern did not score the final 3:17 of the contest as Barton advanced to the semifinals for the 3rd time in school history.

Courtney Sturdivant led Barton with 14 followed by Jessica Halsig with 13. Inga Muciniece grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked 3 shots in the win. Kristine Silaraja led Barton with 6 assists followed by Muciniece with 5 and Sturdivant with 4.

Barton will now turn focus to Central Arizona in the semifinals. The Cougars have never played for the NJCAA Championship. The last time Barton was in the semifinals was 1990 when the Cougars finished 4th. Barton also took 4th in 1981. With the win Barton also tied the school record for wins in a season with 34. Barton was 34-4 in 1990 and 2000.

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

Next 
Fri March 21 – v Central Arizona, 8 pm (NJCAA National Championship Semifinals at the Bicentennial Center in Salina)