Barton beaten for 1st time this season; loses at Cloud County
The Barton County Community College women's basketball team tasted defeat for the 1st time this season, falling to Cloud County Wednesday night at Arley Bryant Gymnasium in Concordia. The No. 3 ranked Cougars lost 74-55 to the No. 16 ranked Thunderbirds in Jayhawk West action, dropping Barton to 16-1 for the season and 2-1 in the West. Cloud County improves to 2-0 in the West and 13-2 on the season. Barton will attempt to get back on the winning track with another road tilt Saturday, traveling to the preseason West favorite and preseason No. 1 team Seward County. Tip will be at 5:30 at the Greenhouse in Liberal.

Highlights
Barton fell behind early in the contest at 7-1 and never led the entire game. Cloud pushed that lead to 19-9 then 28-13 and eventually to 39-19 before taking a 46-26 lead to halftime. It was an opening half that saw Barton hit just 9-of-31 shots and struggle behind the 3-point line where the Cougars are usually deadly. Barton made just 1-of-10 3's in the half and got out-rebounded 26-13. Cloud, meanwhile, hit 50 percent from the floor.

The Cougars didn't have a run in them to start the 2nd half either as Barton scored just 4 points the opening 5 minutes as Cloud pushed the lead to 56-30. The lead got as high as 29 points at 70-41.

The Cougars were led by Courtney Sturdivant with 19 points and Inga Muciniece with 11 points. Barton ended the game with 22 turnovers and shot just 4-of-22 behind the arc. Cloud County put 4 players in double figures, led by Deandra Schirmer with 16. Kara Champlin had 12 points and 11 rebounds.

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

Next 
Sat Jan 12 – at Seward County, 5:30 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Greenhouse in Liberal)