Barton defense stifles Butler in 69-44 win; showdown with Hutch set for Wednesday
The Barton Community College women's basketball team finished up its final details Saturday night to set up a league-leading showdown with Hutchinson Wednesday at the Barton Gym. The No. 11 Cougars went to El Dorado and handed Butler a 69-44 defeat at the Power Plant. The win was the 11th straight for the streaking Cougars. Barton sits 1/2 game up in the West at 11-2 with Hutchinson 1/2 game back at 10-2. Seward County and Cloud County each have 3 losses. The No. 16 Cougars are now 21-6 overall. Butler fell to 13-13 overall and 5-7 in the West. Hutchinson will bring a No. 18 ranking and 23-3 overall mark into the Barton Gym Wednesday. The winner of the 6 pm tip will be alone in 1st place as the only 2 loss team in the conference.

Highlights
Barton played its 3rd straight game without starting point guard and pre-season All American Courtney Sturdivant. Sturdivant sprained a knee in the win over Seward and should return to the Cougars soon. The Cougars also played much of the game without guard Michelle White, who picked up her 4th foul with 13:48 left and followed with a technical to put her on the bench with 5 fouls the final nearly 14 minutes.

But the Cougars weren't phased. In fact, when White went to the bench Barton led 45-31 and again at 47-33 when the Cougars went on a 15-0 run to give Barton a 62-33 lead. In fact, Butler didn't score a point for 8 minutes while the Cougars built the 29-point lead.

The Cougars were led by Kristine Silaraja with 16 points followed by Danielle Bird with 11 points and a career-high 12 rebounds for her 1st double-double of her career. Jordi James also notched a double-double – her 3rd – with 10 points and 11 rebounds. The Cougar defense held Butler to just 28 percent shooting from the field and forced the Grizzlies into 27 turnovers.

Barton will now turn focus to the game that could determine the conference championship with the winner in sole possession of 1st place. Barton still has a contest at Colby and home against Pratt remaining while Hutchinson has 3 games left after the Barton contest, including a home game against Cloud to end the season.

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

Next
Feb 18 – v Hutch 6 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Barton Gym in Great Bend)