The Barton Community College women’s basketball team is 3-0 on the road in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division play.
Tonight, the Lady Cougars will be traveling to Concordia to challenge Cloud County starting at 6.
The Lady Cougars, who are 13-8 overall, 3-4 in the West, are fifth in the standings behind Cloud County, which is 13-7, 4-3.
“I think it’s that we’re coming off of a loss,” Barton head coach Darin Spence said. “We go into road games with something to prove. Of course, those three games were Dodge, Colby and Butler. None of them are Cloud County.”
Cloud County is coming off of a 69-67 road loss at Hutchinson. The game came down to a 3-pointer from Hutchinson’s Chelsea Small with 2.9 seconds remaining.
“No question, every time we play someone, they are coming off of a loss at Hutchinson,” Spence said. “They want to prove that they can play better just like we do. Then there is the history of the Barton program, so there is a double dose of it.”
Cloud County is led by Tera Ingalsbe, who averages 12.6 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.
Dionne Harris leads Barton, averaging 13.4 points per game, though Harris struggled in last Saturday’s 53-46 loss against Pratt. She finished with five points after falling into foul trouble.
“Her issue is if she isn’t really playing hard and competing, she loses focus,” Spence said of Harris. “When she loses her focus, she gets to plays late and that’s why she ends up in foul trouble.
“It’s between her ears. There’s nothing that I can say at this point. It’s up to her.”
Shea Shoemaker averages 9.3 points per game.
“We need her to do more things,” Spence said. “We can’t score 10 points and give up 10. She needs to defend harder, and she needs to raise her level of play so her teammates can follow her lead.”