Behind a career-high 40 points from freshman Jacy Dalinghaus, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would escape a scare from the Bethany College JV team in a 72-70 victory inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Monday, November 18th.

The win allows Cloud County to move to 4-3 overall on the year as the T-Birds have won three of their past four games after starting the year 1-2. 

"It's good to win and I'm glad we won we as did not play well at all tonight" said head coach Brett Erkenbrack in a post-game interview. "Jacy Dalinghaus went for 40 points and we needed every one of them as we didn't get a whole lot of production from the rest of our team." "I'm disappointed with our defensive effort for most of the night, but Jasmina Jones gave us a lift in the second half with a couple of steals and LaKya Leslie got her hands on the ball which allowed us to get a steal to set up the game-winning possession which was good." "At the end of the day, it's always good to win but we need to get better and hopefully we will as we move forward."

Neither team would be all that efficient from the floor in the early going as the first 2:24 of the game would go scoreless before a layup by Bethany College would make the score 2-0 in favor of the Swedes. Bethany College JV would go on to score nine of the first 10 points of the game as the T-Birds would be held to just a lone free throw until the 5:18 mark in the first quarter as Dalinghaus would connect on her first bucket of the game while scoring five of Cloud County's first six points. Trailing 11-6 with just over three minutes left in the quarter, CCCC would use an 8-3 run to tie things up at 14-14 all with 30 seconds remaining in the quarter as the Swedes would connect on a triple before seeing Isabella Vazquez respond with a bucket in the final seconds to make the score 17-16 at the end of the first quarter. 

Cloud County would tie the game up twice in the opening 90 seconds of the second quarter before taking the lead at 20-19 on the back end of a pair of Dalinghaus free throws as the T-Birds would go on to score the next 12 points of the game and take their largest lead of the game at 30-19. Bethany College JV responded yet again by scoring 12 of the next 15 points to close back within two at 33-31 before seeing a layup by Jones end the half to give CCCC a 35-31 lead at the break. 

A 9-3 run by the Swedes to open the second half would see the T-Birds relinquish the lead once more as Dalinghaus would knot the game at 40-40 with a layup at the 7:01 mark before seeing Bethany College JV score five quick points to go up 45-40. The lead would grow to 49-42 for the Bethany College JV team before a Jones triple would get Cloud County back within four as the lead would grow to double-digits for the Swedes as Cloud County would have to battle back to trail 55-51 heading to the fourth. 

Two baskets by Dalinghaus to start the fourth would tie the game at 55-55 as the Swedes would respond with a pair of free throws and layup before seeing CCCC connect on a jumper and three-pointer to put the T-Birds on top 60-59. Bethany College JV responded with a triple of their own to go back up 62-60 to set up a wild final six minutes of game action. Dalinghaus would score the next two buckets to put Cloud County back on top 65-62 following a free throw on the second bucket but see the Swedes score on back-to-back possessions to reclaim the lead at 66-65. Another bucket from Dalinghaus with just over three minutes remaining would give Cloud County a short-lived lead as the Swedes would have another response with a layup and then take a three-point lead at 70-67 with 1:34 remaining. The T-Birds would push the tempo back down the court to get a Dalinghaus layup and call a timeout trailing 70-69 with 1:21 remaining as a shot clock violation would give the ball back to CCCC with 51 seconds left. Each team would turn the ball over on their next possession as the T-Birds would eventually get a Dalinghaus put back off a Leslie missed layup to take the lead at 71-70 with both teams out of timeouts. Leslie would make up for the missed basket by getting her hands on pass to deflect the ball away and get possession back to the T-Birds as the Swedes would be forced to foul Lydia Ostenson who would hit one-of-two free throw attempts. Bethany College JV would get one final look at a game-winner that would fall well short as time expired with the T-Birds hanging on for the thrilling two-point victory. 

Turnovers would be an issue for the T-Birds throughout the night as Cloud County would cough up the ball 22 total times which led to 25 points for the Swedes as Bethany College JV would also make the most of a nine-for-23 performance (39.1 percent) from the three-point line. Cloud County would hold a 47-39 advantage in rebounds and outscore Bethany 38-30 in points in the paint while also edging the Swedes in fast break points 14-13. 

The 40 points for Dalinghaus would come with a game-high 11 rebounds and four steals as the Baileyville, Kansas native would go 18-for-30 from the floor and sink three-of-four free throw attempts. Jones and Maeson Dewey would be CCCC's next top scorers with seven points apiece while Leslie scored five points and grabbed seven rebounds on the night. 

What's Next?

Cloud County will welcome undefeated and number two nationally-ranked South Plains College into Arley Bryant Gymnasium for a 6 p.m. tilt on Friday, November 22nd. The Lady Texans are off to a 6-0 start this season and will have gone six days between games after last playing Grayson College in the New Mexico Junior College Classic last weekend.