National News

 November 4, 2009

The Barton Community College women's basketball team won its season opener Tuesday night at the Barton Gym with some stingy defense in a 59-28 win over the Bethany College JV. Barton allowed Bethany just 6 field goals all night long and forced 40 turnovers to start the 2009-10 campaign off successfully. It also started the career of new Barton Coach Keith Ferguson off on the right foot. Barton will go on the road for the 1st time this weekend when the Cougars travel to Fort Scott for take on the Jayhawk East foe. The Cougars will be back at home Monday to battle the Friends JV in a 5 pm start.

Highlights
Barton struggled to score early in the contest, trying to find its rhythm with only one player back from last year. Barton trailed briefly at 2-0 in the early stages and still led just 6-5 with 7 minutes into the contest. Barton led by just 4 points at 13-9 11 minutes into the game when the Cougars started to put some distance itself and the Swedes.

A Raven Ward basket with 9 minutes to left started a 10-0 run for Barton to give the Cougars a 23-9 advantage. Annie Kassongo scored the final 8 points of the run with 2 on an assist from Hannah Rotollo and the final 6 on fast break baskets from St. John freshman Alisha Fanisher. The Cougars would lead by double digits the rest of the way. The Cougars took a 33-16 lead to halftime by scoring 20 points in the final 9 minutes.

Barton's defense did not allow a Bethany field goal in the 2nd half until just 1:24 remained the contest when Tamara Garner hit a 3-pointer. Blake Nichol added another with 23 seconds. The Swedes ended the half 2-for-12 from the field with 19 turnovers after 21 miscues in the opening half.

Barton was led by Kassongo with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. The sophomore from Switzerland added 4 blocks and 7 rebounds. Fanisher had an impressive night in her Barton debut scoring 8 points, to go with 8 steals, 5 assists and 7 rebounds. The steals and assists were team highs. Jara Shoemaker, a transfer from Brown Mackie who came to Barton along with Ferguson, led the Cougars with 11 rebounds. Freshman Raven Ward added 11 points.

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

Next
Nov 7 - at Fort Scott 5 pm (at Fort Scott)