EL DORADO, Kansas — The Cloud County Community College women's basketball team suffered just its second loss of the season Saturday, falling 68-57 on the road against Butler Community College.

A poor start, and a relentless shooting performance (16-of-25, 64 percent) in the first half by the Grizzlies (7-5 overall, 4-5 KJCCC), put the T-Birds (10-2 overall, 7-2 KJCCC) behind the 8-ball early on as they trailed 41-22 at the half.

"Butler came out strong, aggressive and they acted like they were playing for a little more than us and I'm disappointed in how we started the game," said Cloud County head coach, Brett Erkenbrack. "We fell down 8-0 to begin the game and we seemed flat footed. We were stagnant offensively and didn't get back defensively, which allowed for some easy layups for Butler."

To compound the problem, Cloud County was outrebounded for just the second time this season (43-25), were outscored 38-11 in bench points, and had a tough evening from the free-throw line as the T-Birds were 10-of-22 (46 percent).

"The fact that we got annihilated on the boards, and were 10-for-22 from the line, those two things are going to get you beat nine out of ten times no doubt." Erkenbrack said.

Saturday's unusualness didn't stop there as, for the first time in his 29-year career at Cloud County, Erkenbrack was assessed two technical fouls resulting in an ejection with 3:50 remaining in the third quarter.

Sophomore guard Kelsi Mueller helped lead a charge to try and get the T-Birds back in the game. After starting the game 2-for-9 with five points in the first half, Mueller poured in 21 points on 7-of-16 shooting in the second half.

One of her seven made 3-pointers got Cloud County back within 12 at 64-52 with 2:27 remaining, but time ran out of the T-Birds comeback attempt.

Freshman forward Scout Frame was the second Cloud player in double-figures with 12 points. The reigning KJCCC DI Player of the Week added a team-high 10 rebounds for her third straight double-double.

Cloud County, currently third in the KJCCC standings behind Cowley College and Independence, will look to shake off Saturday's loss as players prepare to head home for holiday break. The T-Birds will resume conference play at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, January 3 on the road against Barton Community College.

"I hate it for our young ladies going home for Christmas break with this taste in their mouth and I don't want this game to overshadow all the positive things we've done this semester. That was my message to them after the game," Erkenbrack said. "We've had a very good start to our conference season, but we were subpar (Saturday). We'll regroup over the holidays here and try to prepare ourselves for a good second semester."