The Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference has produced highs and lows for the Barton women after only two games.
The Lady Cougars began by dropping their conference opener against Seward County, the No. 10 team in the latest NJCAA poll.
Over the weekend, Barton grabbed a 71-64 victory over Dodge City on the road to improve to 11-5 overall, 1-1 in the KJCCC Western Division.
Tonight, the Lady Cougars host Garden City, which is 9-7 overall, 1-1 in the conference, at Kirkman Activity Center at 6.
“I really like their team,” Barton head coach Darin Spence said. “They play very physical, and they have a bunch of good athletes. They compete the whole game. They are going to be a tough team for us to beat.”
Both teams sit behind Hutchinson, Seward County and Cloud County, the three teams that are undefeated in conference play, in the west standings.
Raven Anderson is coming off of a double-double in the Dodge City game, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. She shot 7 of 10 from the free-throw line.
“She’s just that kind of a player,” Spence said of Anderson. “She’s a very active player, and she has the chance to get fouled a lot. I think she will continue to get better as she gains more experience and gets more comfortable playing again.”
Anderson averages 8.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
The big concern for Spence is turnovers. The Lady Cougars have had 51 turnovers in their two conference games this season.
“We’ve been working on guarding the dribble better,” Spence said. “We have to guard the ball a lot better than we have been doing. The times we have been able to guard the ball, we’ve been doing very well on offense.”
Dionne Harris still leads Barton, averaging 14.3 points per game. She also leads in rebounds per game with 8.1.
Shea Shoemaker, who went 4-for-4 from the field against Dodge City, averages 10.2 points per game.
Freshman forward Blair Bloomfield averages 9.9 points per game.
Tamara Jones leads Garden City, averaging 15.9 points per game.