Against the Garden City Community College women’s basketball team, Barton’s Netanya Jackson stepped up with team-leading 17 points and six rebounds.
On Saturday night at 5:30 in El Dorado, Jackson may need to step up again. This time against a tall Butler team in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division action.
“They’re a big team,” Barton head coach Darin Spence said. “They have some really good athletes. They play solid defense, and they are hungry to get their first conference win. They are going to come out energized.”
Jackson, at 6-foot-4, will have to contend with Butler centers Asia Watson and Tonya Elliott-Salas, who are both 6-4.
Jackson averages 7.4 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. Watson averages 3.3 points and 3.6 rebounds per game, and Elliott-Salas averages 3.4 points and 2.3 rebounds.
“We think she’ll be a big part of the game,” Spence said of Jackson. “We hope so. They’ve got someone the same size as her and another player who’s just as tall. Her challenge is how many minutes can she play and be productive. It goes back to good conditioning. If she works on that and she gets to playing more productive minutes, she is a going to be a big part of our team down the stretch.”
Jackson played 19 minutes in Wednesday night’s loss to Garden.
Butler, which is 11-5 overall and 0-2 in the conference, is led by Jamilah Bonner.
Bonner averages 15.4 points and 7.8 boards per game. She also leads in steals (51) and assists (19).
Barton’s top scorers are Dionne Harris, who averages 14.3 points per game, and Shea Shoemaker, who averages 10.2.
Harris finished Wednesday’s game with five points and Shoemaker went 0-for-6 from the field.
“We didn’t do much at practice today,” Spence said. “We just shot around a little bit, and watched game film from the Garden game. I think (Harris and Shoemaker) were receptive to what we were saying and what they were seeing. The thing about watching film is you have to know what to look for.
“It all comes down to how you start games. We came out flat in the Seward and Garden games. If that happens, we have to find a way to snap out of it. I anticipate that they will both snap back against Butler.”
Raven Anderson has become a force for Barton (11-6, 1-2), with six steals in three games, as well as making 13 of 16 free throws for 81.25 percent shooting.
Blair Bloomfield averages 8.5 points per game.