INDEPENDENCE, Kan. - The Independence Women's basketball team put together one of their best games of the year Saturday afternoon, but fell just short, losing to Barton 64-59. 

In their penultimate home game of the season, Independence, with only six healthy players on the roster battled all afternoon long against a solid Barton (15-14) team. The first half was back and forth for the entirety of the half with neither team mustering more than a five point lead at any point. Barton held that five point lead with under two minutes to go in the first half, before Indy ripped off a quick 5-0 run to tie it up before the Cougars were able to cash in two free throws to take a 30-28 lead to the halftime locker room. 

Barton came out firing in the second half as they quickly scored the first six points of the half and pushed their lead to eight. Asmin Tanhan then made one of her five three pointers, followed by a Mikka Chmabers bucket to cut the Cougar lead to three. From there, the Cougars finished the quarter on a 16-6 run blowing the game open, and taking a 13 point advantage into the final quarter. Independence didn't go down easy though as the fourth qaurter was actually their best qaurter both offensively and definsively. They scored 20 points in the qaurter and held the Cougars to just 12. They were down 16 with five minutes to go, and finished the game on an 18-7 run, with the five point losing defecit being as close as the Pirates would come. Allison Reese scored the final nine points of the game for Indy all in the last two minutes of the game. 

Independence shot the ball 31% from the field and 26% from three, while the Cougars were 47% from the field and 40% from three. Barton won the rebound battle 43-33, and also dished out 22 assists to the Pirates 10. Independence did win the turnover battle, forcing 22 and only surrendering 12. The 22 forced turnover led to 18 points for Indy. 

Asmin Tanhan led the way with 24 points and knocked down five three pointers. Allison Reese joined her in double figures with 14 points, and Lauryn Gentle had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Reese pitched in eight steals onthe defensive end as well. 

The loss sets up a KJCCC postseason tournament play-in game for the final game of the regular season, next Wednesday against Fort Hayes Tech. The winner will take the final spot in the KJCCC postseason tournament while the loser's season will come to an end. The two teams met back on January 18th, a 75-67 win for Fort Hayes.