The Barton Community College women's basketball team raced out to 12-0 lead to cruise to a 84-69 win over Neosho County Community College Friday night at the Barton Gym in the opening day of the Best Western Angus Inn/Cougar Booster Club Thanksgiving Classic.  The Lady Cougars built a nineteen point first half lead and extended to twenty-one while never allowing Neosho to draw any closer than twelve.  With the victory Barton improves to 9-1 on the season and drops Neosho to 5-6.  The Lady Cougars will wrap up play in the Classic on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. against Independence Community College while Neosho will play Brown Mackie College at 1:00 p.m. 

Barton got a career high performance from freshman Mariana Lambert as three Lady Cougars reached double figures.  Lambert, who struggled early in the contest, finished with nineteen points on 8-of-16 shooting from floor.   Ashton Bruner and Cheyenne Hedrington each recorded a double-double performance to round out the double digit scorers.  Bruner scored seventeen with twelve rebounds with a team high six assists while Hedrington scored fifteen to go along with twelve rebounds and a team high three blocks.

Neosho's Ashley Grant led all scorers with twenty-eight points from 12-of-28 shooting.  Jaycee Fourkiller also reached double-figures with sixteen points.  Madigan Gonzales led the Panthers in rebounding with ten while Mackenzie Dunbar led all participants with five steals.

In the earlier game of the Classic, Independence Community College erased an early four-point deficit to lead by twenty-six at halftime to cruise to a 98-66 victory over Brown Mackie College.  Independence improved to 6-2 on the season while Brown Mackie dropped to 5-3.   

Independence's Jasmine Martindale recorded a double-double with her thirty-two point fourteen rebound performance to lead four Pirates in double figures.  Deja Robinson came off the bench to score seventeen while Bethany Barlow and Mariana Duran contributed sixteen and eleven respectively.  Dishing out twenty-six assists to thirty-seven field goals, the Pirates had four players with four or more assists led by Duran's five.  Duran also led in steals with four.

Catarina Garcia led Brown Mackie with eleven points while Tannon Slater scored ten.  Seanna Arredondo, Hannah Mortimer, and Cheyenne Tull each scored nine.  Tull led the Lions in rebounds with nine while Mortimer led in assists with four.