Barton wins home finale; Kassongo sets single-season blocked shot mark
The Barton Community College women's basketball team won its home finale Wednesday night, rolling over Colby 66-44 at the Barton Gym. In the process, sophomore Annie Kassongo broke the single-season blocked shot record with 4 more swats in her final game at home. Barton still has one more regular season game to play but the Cougars already know their playoff destination Tuesday – Coffeyville. The Cougars, 6-9 in the West, will be the No 6 seed from the West and will travel to Coffeyville for a 6 pm tip Tuesday night. Barton will conclude regular season play Saturday with a 6 pm tip at Pratt.

Highlights
Barton took a 13-0 lead right off the start but Colby hung around for a good portion of the game. Colby battled back to make it 15-11 – the closest the Trojans would get – but kept most of the opening half in single digits. Barton took a 28-20 lead to halftime. The Cougars put some separation between themselves and the Trojans midway through the 2nd half. Barton led 39-30 when it went on a quick 5-0 run made it 44-30. That run turned into a 12-2 run that gave the Cougars a 52-31 lead with 10 minutes to play in the game. From there the Cougars cruised home for the win.

Kassongo broke the single season shot block record early in the contest, needing just 2 blocks to pass Inga Muciniece who swatted 119 shots in 2008. Kassongo ended the game with 4 blocks and now stands at 122 for the season. She also has the single game record of 9 set at Butler earlier this year. Muciniece hold the career record with 183 – a number Kassongo will not likely reach this year. She has 150 career blocks.

Raven Ward broke out of a 3-game scoring slump, leading the Cougars with 17 points. It was the 1st time in 4 games the sophomore reached double figures after recording 12 straight double figure outings. Hannah Rotolo posted her 3rd straight game of double figures with 15 followed Alisha Fanshier with 10. Ironically Kassongo failed to reach double figures for the just the 3rd time this year with 7. She did lead Barton with 12 rebounds.

Barton will wrap up the regular at Pratt Saturday against a Beaver team that is 3-12 in the West and 4-25 overall. Pratt did have to forfeit 3 games earlier this year so the Beavers record on the court is 7-22. Pratt has lost 10 of its last 11 contest and will likely be the 7 seed from the West in the upcoming playoffs.

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

Next
Feb 27 – at Pratt 6 pm (Jayhawk West contest at Lesh Arena in Pratt)

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