Barton receives No. 5 seed; plays Shelton State to open NJCAA Tournament
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team was rewarded with the No. 5 seed for the upcoming NJCAA National Championship tournament in Salina. The Cougars, winners' of the Region VI Tournament to qualify for the event, are 32-2 on the season. Barton will open play with the prime time game Tuesday night, taking on Shelton State (Ala) at 8:15 at the Bicentennial Center. It will be the last of 6 games playing during the opening day. Shelton State will bring a 28-4 mark into the tournament as winners of Region 22.

Seeding
The top seed for the tournament and the No. 1 ranked team in the country is Central Arizona, which brings a perfect 31-0 mark to Salina. The No. 2 seed is Arkansas-Fort Smith (31-1) with No. 3 going to Gulf Coast (Fla) at 32-1. Southeastern Illinois was also seed ahead of Barton at No. 4 and is the only school with 2 losses ahead of them. Southeastern Illinois is 31-2 on the year.

About Shelton State
The Alabama college has won the past 3 Region 22 championship as well as the past 3 Alabama Community College Conference championships. The Buccaneers won the Region 22 title with a 56-50 win over Northwest Shoals in the title game. Shelton State also won a 56-50 game in the semifinals, beating Beville-Faytette. Shelton State was unbeaten in the ACCC at 12-0.

The Lady Bucs have not lost since a 74-66 setback to Central Florida back on Dec. 18 in the final game before the Christmas Break. Staring with their Jan. 4 win over John Woods, 98-74, the Lady Bucs have won 22 straight games.

Shelton State is scoring 78.6 points per contest and giving up just 59.1, besting their foes by nearly 20 points per contest. The Lady Bucs also like the 3-point shot, hitting 226 on the season at a clip of 36 percent.

The Buccaneers are led by 5-9 frehsman Margaret Bell at 14 points per contest. The only other player in double figures in the balanced attack is 6-0 freshman Darniskah Lyles at 10.9. Five players score more than 9 points a game and 10 average at least 4 per contest.

What's next
No matter what happens in the opening game, Barton will not play Wednesday. The winner of the Barton-Shelton State play at 8 pm in the quarterfinals Thursday against the winner of Southeastern Illinois-East Central (Miss). The losers of those 2 games will face each other at 2 pm Thursday.

The semifinals are slated for Friday at 6 am 8 pm with the championship game set for 7 pm Saturday night. Saturday will see the 7th place game at 1 pm, the 5th place game at 3 pm, and the 3rd place game at 5 pm prior to the title tilt.

Seeds
1 – Central Arizona, 31-0
2 – Arkansas-Fort Smith, 31-1
3 – Gulf Coast (Fla), 32-1
4 – Southeastern Illinois, 31-2
5 – Barton, 32-2
6 – Jefferson College (Mo), 31-1
7 – Southern Idaho, 30-2
8 – Trinity Valley (Texas), 26-5
9 – Midland (Texas), 28-5
10 – Walters State (Tenn), 29-4
11 – Monroe College (NY), 20-7
12 – Shelton State (Ala), 28-4
13 – East Central (Miss), 22-6
14 – Western Nebraska, 30-4
15 – Lake Region State (ND), 26-6
16 – Georgia Perimeter, 19-14

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

Next 
Tues March 18 – v Shelton State (Ala), 8:15 pm (NJCAA National Championship at the Bicentennial Center in Salina)