CONCORDIA, Kansas — The Cloud County Community College women's basketball team picked up a much-needed home victory over Colby Community College on Wednesday night, using a big second-half effort to roll to a 76-52 final.

The T-Birds (15-8 overall, 12-8 KJCCC) snapped a three-game home losing skid and improved their home record to 9-4 on the season.

Cloud's victory was keyed by a dominant third quarter where it outscored Colby (4-20 overall, 2-18 KJCCC) by a 24-10 margin, highlighted by an 18-4 blitz over the final 7:14 that ballooned what was a 42-31 lead to 60-35.

"We played better defense for sure," said Cloud County head coach, Brett Erkenbrack, when asked about the game-changing run. "Kelsi (Mueller) hit some shots and I thought, at times, our positioning on offense was really good."

The T-Birds' defense clamped down and limited Colby to a woeful 19 percent shooting for the quarter, while sophomore guard Kelsi Mueller drilled three of her five 3-pointers on the evening to ignite the offense.

Mueller and freshman forward Scout Frame paced all Cloud County players with 15 points apiece. Frame added 10 rebounds and four assists for her eighth double-double of the season.

Freshman forward Courtney Hammel was the third starter in double-figures with 12 points — 10 coming in the second half — while freshman Courtney Keech (11 points) and sophomore Kennedy Gay (nine points, nine rebounds) provided quality minutes off the bench.

Gay and Keech combined for 15 points in the first half to help the T-Birds weather the early pressure from Colby and take a 36-25 lead into the locker room at the half.

"Their production was very important. We're playing with eight scholarship players and (walk-on) Liza Ven der Merwe, who has come in and provided us with some good help," Erkenbrack said. "We need everybody to do all they can each and every night for us to be successful."

Cloud County will now look to build off Wednesday's win as it prepares for a one game pit stop at Garden City Community College on Saturday. The two teams are currently tied for sixth in the KJCCC standings with 12-8 conference marks.

Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.

"That's a big game for us in a number of ways, not the least of which is we're neck and neck with Garden City battling for a (Region VI playoff) first-round game," Erkenbrack said. "It's certainly a game we need to win and Garden City is playing well right now… I think, at this time, Garden City and Butler maybe are as hot as anybody in the conference."