GREAT BEND, Kan. – Trying to extend their season to the weekend, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would grab a 29-26 lead before seeing host Barton County Community College pull away to hand the T-Birds a 65-52 defeat in the opening round of the NJCAA Region VI Playoffs in Great Bend, Kansas on Wednesday, February 26th.

The defeat sees Cloud County conclude their season at 9-22 overall while the Cougars will advance to the NJCAA Region VI Quarterfinal round on Saturday afternoon in Dodge City, Kansas with a 16-15 record.

Points would be at a premium in the opening minutes of the contest as the T-Birds would manage to hold Barton scoreless for the first 3:25 of the game while getting a Lydia Ostenson triple and LaKya Leslie jumper to go up 5-0. The Cougars would manage to start seeing shots fall over the next few minutes of the first as the once five-point T-Bird lead would be cut to just two at 9-7 before seeing Leslie with another jumper put CCCC up 11-7. Cloud County and Barton would trade points throughout the final three minutes of the opening period as the four-point lead for CCCC would be the margin at the end of the quarter with the T-Birds on top 15-11.

A Jacy Dalinghuas field goal in the opening minute of the second quarter would give Cloud County their largest lead of the game at 17-11 before seeing Barton respond with four quick points to cut the lead down to two. The run for Barton would continue with a layup to knot things up at 17-17 as the next four-plus minutes of the game would feature four ties and three lead changes. With the score tied at 24 all, Maeson Dewey would get in on the scoring for CCCC with a triple to put the T-Birds back up 27-24 as Cloud County would finish the half by scoring five of the final seven points to lead 29-26 at the half.

The T-Birds would match their largest lead of the game in the opening seconds of the third quarter as Ostenson would hit a triple off a Barton turnover, but it would be the Cougars who would score the next nine points to go up 35-32. A six-minute scoring drought would see the CCCC still within striking distance down three with just over three minutes left in the third quarter but have a response of their own to score five of the next six points to go up a point at 37-36. The T-Birds would then trade a Barton field goal with a Jasmina Jones triple to go up 40-38, but the Cougars would score the next seven points and end the quarter on a 7-2 run to go up 45-42 with 10 minutes remaining.

Buckets from Kelsie Kelly and Dalinghaus on two of Cloud County's first three possessions would allow the T-Birds to take one final lead at 46-45 before a 10-0 Barton lead would occur with the final six points coming on back-to-back treys to force a T-Bird timeout with 6:20 remaining. Haven Hamilton would connect on a layup out of the timeout to get CCCC back within seven, but it would be all the closer that Cloud County would get as Barton would go on to score 10 of the final 14 points and pull away to advance to Saturday's quarterfinal round.  

A 26-3 discrepancy in free throws would allow the Cougars to outscore the T-Birds 20-3 at the charity stripe as Barton would also hold a 20-12 advantage in points off turnovers and 36-24 advantage in points in the paint. CCCC would hit on just 22-of-59 (37.3 percent) of their shots from the field to go along with a 5-for-25 (20.0 percent) performance from beyond the arc while Barton would shoot 40.4 percent (21-of-52) from the floor.

In her final game as a T-Bird, Lydia Ostenson would score 11 points while Dalinghaus would score a team-high 13 points and grab eight rebounds. Barton would be led by a game-high 21 points from Vanessa Oduah as four of five Cougar starters would reach double-figures.