Cougars beat Garden City to remain tied for West lead; run winning streak to 10
The Barton Community College women's basketball team moved a step closer to defending its Jayhawk West title with an 88-61 win over Garden City Wednesday night at the Barton Gym in Great Bend. The Cougars used a big first half from Jordi James to build a 19-point halftime lead and cruise to the conference win. The win was the 100th in the coaching career of Barton coach Jill Barclay. Barton improves to 10-2 in the West and has now won 10 straight contests. The Cougars are 20-6 overall. Garden falls to 3-8 in the West and 9-16 overall. Barton will travel to El Dorado Saturday to take on Butler County in West play. Tip for the contest will be 5:30 pm.

Highlights
James had a big 1st half on her way to a career-high 23 points. James tossed in 17 during the opening 20 minutes of play, hitting 6-of-7 shot from the floor – including 3-of-3 on 3-pointers – to go with a perfect 4-for-4 effort at the free throw line. The freshman from McPherson ended the night 8-of-11 and added 7 rebounds for the Cougars.

She helped Barton to a lead of 42-22 late in the opening half as Barton shot around 65 percent for much of the opening half. The Cougars ended the half at 54 percent with a 49-30 lead on the visiting Broncbusters.

The 2nd half saw the lead grow to as many as 29 points early in the half as the Cougars cruised to the easy win. Garden's only lead in the game was at 6-4 early in the contest. Barton ended the game hitting 50 percent and dominated the paint, outscoring Garden 48-18. Many of those points in the paint came on fast breaks, where the Cougars outscored Garden 26-10.

Kristine Silaraja added 21 for Barton, hitting 9-of-12 shots. Tressie Todd came off the bench to record a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Silaraja had 5 steals and Michelle White 4 as Barton forced 23 Garden turnovers that resulted in 21 Barton points. Garden was led by the West's leading scorer, Katie Novack, who tossed in 15 on 5-of-14 3-point shooting.

Barton will travel to Butler Saturday where the Cougars can set up a showdown Wednesday night with a win over the Grizzlies. Barton will play West co-leader Hutch Wednesday at the Barton Gym but must 1st get by the Grizzlies before they can turn focus to that contest. Butler will bring a 5-6 West mark and 13-12 overall record into the contest.

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

Next
Feb 14 – at Butler 5:30 pm (Jayhawk West contest at the Power Plant in El Dorado)