Barton beats Colby by 42 for 5th straight West win
The Barton Community College women's basketball team shook off a sluggish 1st half to roll to a 42-point blowout of Colby Wednesday night at the Barton Gym. The Cougars won the Jayhawk West match 89-47 for their 5th straight win. Barton outscored Colby by 36 in the 2nd half for the easy win. The Cougars remain tied for 3rd in the West. Barton is now 5-2 in the West and 15-6 overall on the season. Colby fell to 3-5 and 8-14.

Highlights
The two teams traded the lead 4 times during the opening half with neither able to gain a lead of more than 7 points – which was a 7-0 Barton start. Colby lead by as many as 6 in the opening half at 23-17 but Barton put together an 11-0 run late the half and took a 36-30 lead to halftime.

The 2nd half was a much different story. Barton never trailed in the half, extending the lead to double digits in the opening 4 minutes. The lead reached 20 on a Courtney Sturdivant layup with 9 minutes to play and 30 points on Annie Kassongo's free throws with 4 minutes to play and eventually a high of 44 points in the final minute.

During the 2nd 20 minutes of action, Barton outscored Colby 53-17. Barton hit 21-of-40 shots while Colby made just 5-of-27. Kristine Silaraja scored 23 to lead 4 Cougars in double figures on 10-of-14 shooting from the floor. She was followed by Jordi James and Tressie Todd with 14 each and Annie Kassongo, who scored a career-high 12 in her 8th game as a Cougar. She also added a career-high 11 rebounds for her 1st double-double. James had 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals to go with her 14 points.

Barton will travel to Pratt for a battle with the Beavers, who are coming off an 80-26 loss at Hutchinson. Pratt is 1-6 in the West and has an 8-13 overall mark. Tip is set for 6 pm at the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena.

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

Next
Jan 31 – at Pratt 6 pm (Jayhawk West contest at Lesh Arena in Pratt)