Shea Shoemaker made a triumphant return to the Barton Community College women’s basketball lineup Friday night.
Shoemaker, a 5-foot-11 sophomore guard, who missed the first seven games with a broken left hand, came off the bench to spark the Lady Cougars to a 60-56 win over Coffeyville in the Highland Hotel-Booster Club Basketball Classic at Kirkman Activity Center.
“I was just ready to be back instead of sitting out,” said Shoemaker, a Minneapolis High School product, who netted 10 of her career-high 18 points at Barton in the second half to help rally the Lady Cougars to a benchmark victory in the Darin Spence era.
“The team was getting me so hyped up and I was excited. (The win), it shows how good we can be.”
The victory was the fifth straight for Barton, which improved to 6-2 on the season.
“It was a good team win for us,” said Spence, a former elite Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference coach at Butler and Cowley, who was hired in August after guiding the NCAA Division-I New Mexico State women’s program the last eight seasons. “We got down and we kept fighting it. There are 40 minutes in a game and you’ve got to play them all. Sometimes you’ve got to play more, but for sure, you have to play those 40.
“Our team’s getting better. It would have been easy to fold. Coffeyville’s good and they have some sophomore guards that hurt us early in the first half and kind of took our guards out of the game, but we adjusted and I was really pleased with the way we showed a lot more composure in the second half.”
Freshman forward Blair Bloomfield, a Clifton-Clyde product, added 14 points and a team-high seven rebounds for Barton.
Taschell Phillips, a freshman forward, out of Washington, D.C., added eight points for the Lady Cougars, who made 22 of 55 field goals for 40 percent on the night.
Despite committing eight turnovers during the opening eight minutes, the Lady Cougars stayed in the game early with stubborn defense and 44-percent first-half shooting.
Daryn Miller knocked down a 3-pointer at the 13:44 mark to give the Lady Ravens an early 12-8 lead. But Barton answered with guard Jennifer Allende making a slick pass to Bloomfield flashing through the lane for a layup, cutting the margin to 12-10.
The Lady Ravens (4-3) would go on a 15-7 run over the next six-plus minutes, capped by Miller’s 3, to seize a 27-17 lead with 5:35 remaining before halftime.
But the Lady Cougars finished the half by answering with an 11-5 run of their own to slash the margin to 32-28 at halftime.
Trailing 31-21, Bloomfield hit a basket at the 2:38 mark, the first of six straight points for Barton, followed up by Erin Copeland’s drive for a bucket and a Shoemaker jumper to make it 31-27.
Shoemaker was 2-for-5 from the field and 4-for-4 from the foul line for a team-high eight first-half points.
Midway through the second half, Shoemaker buried back-to-back 3-pointers, sparking an 11-6 surge over the next four minutes. She capped her flurry with a third trifecta with 6:29 showing on the game clock, giving the Lady Cougars a 48-41 lead.
And, in the late going, she hit a critical free throw to push the margin to 60-56 in the final seconds.
“She need to use her experience as a sophomore and now filling in a new role, that stuff can be expected,” Spence said of Shoemaker. “Let’s not be a one-trick pony and not see it for five more days.
“I expect that from Shea. She needs to be a leader of this team and she needs to provide some scoring for us.”
The win coming against a Coffeyville program that is steeped in Jayhawk East championship banners could provide a springboard for the Lady Cougars entering the remainder of the non-conference season and beyond.
“I think it’s great,” Spence said. “This was a game where they were the ones that should have beaten us tonight. We didn’t have to win because of where we are as a program now (rebuilding process), but our kids dug down and found a way to pull it together and we won.
“We had contributions from different people and Coffeyville is a good team. If this group just believes that it can do this and keeps coming together and keep working on that chemistry, we could be good this year.”
Copeland had a team-high six of Barton’s 17 assists. Shoemaker had five assists and Allende totaled three.
Shoemaker and Allende, a freshman from Great Bend, led the team with five steals apiece.
Coffeyville (4-3) was led by Tiane Turner with 20 points and Miler finished with 12.
In Friday’s classic lid-lifter, behind three players in double-figure scoring, Pratt’s women defeated Labette 63-49.
Cari Guyton and Ann Pauly scored 16 apiece and Hayli Jo Smith added 14 points for the Lady Beavers (5-1).
Labette (3-5), which trailed 35-28 at halftime, was led by Chamiya Reaves with 18 points.
JUNIOR COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Highland Hotel-Booster Club
Basketball Classic
At Great Bend
Kirkman Activity Center
Friday
WOMEN
Barton Community College 60,
Coffeyville 56
COFFEYVILLE (4-3)
Tiane Turner 8-13 4-4 20, Karin Robinson 0-13 6-6 6, Shantel Neely 0-3 3-4 3, McKenna Britton 2-4 0-1 4, QuiEssence Price 3-4 1-2 7, Tonisha Wilson 0-3 0-0 0, Paris Johnson 0-2 0-2 0, Daryn Miller 4-9 0-0 12, Angelic Frazier 0-0 0-0 0, Andrea Rhoiney 1-2 0-0 2, Jessica Anderson 0-1 2-2 2. Totals 18-54 16-21 56.
BARTON (6-2)
Blair Bloomfield 6-14 2-5 14, Taschell Phillips 4-10 0-0 8, Ta’Kerra Williams 1-2 0-0 2, Dionne Harris 3-9 0-1 6, Erin Copeland 2-7 2-2 7, Devan Boeger 0-1 0-0 0, Shea Shoemaker 5-9 5-7 18, Jennifer Allende 0-0 0-0 0, Crystal Fulton 0-0 0-0 0, Netanya Jackson 1-3 3-4 5. Totals 22-55 12-19 60.
Halftime — Coffeyville 32, Barton 28. Three-point goals — Coffeyville 4-18 (Miller 4-8, Robinson 0-4, Turner 0-2, Johnson 0-2, Wilson 0-2); Barton 4-8 (Shoemaker 3-4, Copeland 1-3, Boeger 0-1). Rebounds — Barton 39 (Bloomfield 7, Harris 5, Shoemaker 5, Jackson 4); Coffeyville 39 (Anderson 8, Robinson 5). Assists — Barton 17 (Copeland 6, Shoemaker 5, Allende 3); Coffeyville 11 (Neely 3). Steals — Barton 15 (Allende 5, Shoemaker 5); Coffeyville 10 (Turner 3). Turnovers — Coffeyville 23 (Robinson 5); Barton 22 (Copeland 4). Blocked shots — Barton 2, Coffeyville 2.
