McCook, Neb. - Playing through 16 lead changes and four ties, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would endure a scoring drought of nearly five minutes midway through the fourth quarter to fade late in a 71-62 road defeat to McCook Community College at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center in McCook, Nebraska on Tuesday, November 9th. 

With the defeat, Cloud County falls to 1-2 on the young season with both defeats coming on the road while the host Indians improved to 2-1 on the year with all three games coming at home. 

Points would be hard to come by in the opening quarter of action as just 10 total points would be scored in the opening six-plus minutes of action with Paula Puzule accounting for six of the points to put CCCC up 6-4. After seeing McCook reclaim the lead at 7-6 on a three-pointer of their own, Te Araroa Sopoaga would force another lead change with a driving layup to put CCCC up 8-7 with 3:18 left in the opening quarter. Two more lead changes would be had before the end of the opening quarter as Cloud County would turn a 9-8 deficit into a 13-9 lead with six quick points before giving up one final basket to the Indians to make it 13-11 after 10 minutes of play. 

In the second quarter, the T-Birds would open the scoring with a three as part of a 5-2 spurt to open the period and take their largest lead of the game at 18-12 with 8:39 remaining before halftime. McCook would then manage to split a pair of free throws and convert with a bucket on their next trip down the floor to get things back within three at 18-15, but the T-Birds would use a pair of free throws to push the lead back out to two possessions at 20-15. CCCC's lead would hold for the next few minutes as MCC eventually managed to tie things up at 23-23 before taking the lead at 24-23 to force a Cloud County timeout with 3:27 left in the half. The McCook lead would grow to four at 28-24, but the T-Birds would use a Makayla Twyman triple to get back within one before using two Olivia Collier-Tuipulotu free throws to reclaim the lead and hold a 31-30 lead at the break. 

More back-and-forth play would be had in the third quarter as neither team would be able to hold a lead of more than four in the quarter which would feature four more lead changes. After conceding the opening bucket of the half, Cloud County would manage to reclaim the lead at 35-34 before allowing a trey to the Indians to make it 37-35 McCook. Collier-Tuipolotu would get CCCC back to even at 37-37 before seeing Rori Cox score four straight to put the T-Birds back up with just under four minutes left in the quarter. MCC would then manage to outscore Cloud County 6-2 over the next two minutes of play to go up 47-43 and eventually end the quarter holding onto a 49-45 lead over the T-Birds. 

Four quick points from CCCC would be part of a 7-0 T-Bird run to begin the fourth and give Cloud County the lead back at 52-49 as Kennedy Becker would cap off the run with a three-point play. McCook would respond with a 17-0 run while holding the T-Birds scoreless for the next 4:40 to take their largest lead of the game at 66-52 with nine of the 17 points coming from beyond the arc. As the Cloud County drought would end on a Jessi Brummett layup with 3:45 remaining, CCCC would attempt to make one final push at a comeback by scoring seven of the next nine points but ultimately run out of time as the deficit would not drop below eight to allow the Indians to escape with the win.  

Finishing the game with just a 33.3 percent (21-of-63) performance from the floor, Cloud County would also struggle from beyond the arc (four-of-14, 28.6 percent) and the charity stripe (59.3 percent, 16-for-27) with their highest-scoring quarter coming as part of an 18-point second period. McCook would manage to out-rebound the T-Birds 38-31 as both teams would be limited to single-digit offensive rebounds which would limit the total number of chances for second-chance points. 

Cox (16 points) along with Brummett (10 points) would be the lone CCCC player in double-figures as Puzule would score all nine of her points in the first half to finish a point shy of giving Cloud County a third-player to hit double-digits. Kennedy Becker would finish three points (seven total points) and one rebound (nine total rebounds) shy of a double-double as no T-Bird would play more than 29 total minutes in the contest. 

What's Next?
The T-Birds will close out the week with two more games coming at home beginning on Thursday, November 11th when CCCC hosts the York College JV team at 6 PM. The Panther JV team has played one game so far on the season and is scheduled to host the Peru State College JV team on Wednesday night before visiting Concordia for Thursday's contest.