The Barton Community College women’s basketball team will host Labette in the first round of the NJCAA Region VI tournament tonight at 7.
Admission is free at Kirkman Activity Center.
Labette finished the regular season at 10-20 overall and 7-11 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Eastern Division. The Lady Cardinals enter the NJCAA Region VI tournament as the No. 6 seed from the east.
“They’ve got a couple of guards that are pretty good,” Barton head coach Keith Ferguson said. “(Freddie) Sims and (Cierra Emerson) can really move. They are very good. We can’t let them shoot any open 3s.
“They run a dribble-drive, kind of like us so we sort of know what we’re going to see.”
Labette has played in Great Bend before, attending the Barton Booster Classic in November.
Barton beat Labette in the classic on Nov. 20, 63-47.
Sims leads the Lady Cardinals with 14.2 points per game.
Emerson averages 12.7 points, hitting 28.8 percent from 3-point range. She led her team against Barton at the Classic, scoring 13 points.
Tesia Danner scored 12 points per game.
Alexis Ellis leads Labette with 6.1 rebounds per game.
“We need to get better defensively,” Ferguson said. “We need to play defense for an entire game. We haven’t been scoring as well in the last couple of games.
“I’d like us to be in the 70-80 range, but we’re doing pretty good.”
For the Cougars, Christina Caddy leads in scoring with 12.8 points per game, including 31.3 percent from long range.
Alisha Fanshier averages 12.4 points per game, shooting 40.1 percent from the field.
Dionne Harris, who completed the regular season with her eighth double-double by scoring a career-high 26 points and grabbing career-high 19 rebounds, leads Barton with 7.3 rebounds per game. Harris also averages 10.5 points per game.
Harris led the Cougars the first time they played Labette, scoring 12 points. She was joined in double figures by Cerissa McMillan and Caddy, who each scored 11 points.
“They have a 6-2 kid (Danner),” Ferguson said of Labette’s matchup with Harris and 6-foot-4 Netanya Jackson. “She’s alright. She‘s left-handed, which will create some differences defending her.
“They will definitely be running a zone defense.”
The winner of the game will advance to Friday’s second-round game against the winner of the Colby-Independence game.