EL DORADO, Kan. – A three-point game through three-quarters of play would finish as a 71-58 defeat for the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team at number-14 ranked Butler Community College inside the Power Plant in El Dorado, Kansas on Saturday, December 11th.
 
Dropping their third straight road contest, Cloud County is now 6-7 overall and 2-5 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while host Butler snaps a two-game losing skid to improve to 11-2 overall and 6-2 in the KJCCC.
 
An efficient start from the T-Birds would see eight of the first 10 points of the contest be scored by CCCC as Makayla Twyman and Paula Puzule would hit back-to-back triples in the opening 2:40 of the contest. Butler would then respond by scoring the next five points of the game to pull within one at 8-7 before a layup from Kay Hauata Phillips and another Puzule three would push the lead back out to six at 13-7. Things would remain a six-point lead for Cloud County until the 2:48 mark of the first quarter as the Grizzlies would score the final four points to take advantage of the T-Birds going scoreless for the final 3 minutes to make it an 18-16 lead for CCCC heading to the second quarter.
 
Two straight buckets for Te Araroa Sopoaga would get Cloud County back on the scoreboard in the second quarter and offset a three for Butler to allow CCCC to remain in the lead as BCCC would cut the T-Bird lead down to one on three separate occasions. After Butler would reclaim the lead with a three at the 4:58 mark of the second period, Puzule would hit her fourth triple of the contest to allow Cloud County to take lead once again before seeing the Grizzlies score five straight to take a three-point lead. The T-Birds would manage to keep things within a possession for the rest of the first half, eventually getting a last-second trey from Puzule to knot things up at 34-34 heading into halftime.
 
Breaking the tie to open the second half, Cloud County would get a Phillips layup on their opening possession of the third quarter to go back up two before giving up back-to-back buckets to Butler. A driving layup from Rori Cox would tie things back up at 38-38. BCCC would then go on a 7-0 run to take their largest lead up to that point at 45-38 with just under four minutes left in the quarter before seeing a T-Bird response happen with a Kennedy Becker jumper and Cox jumper to pull within three. The final two-plus minutes of the quarter would see Butler get a free throw before a Twyman three to get CCCC back within a point as a layup in the final seconds for BCCC made it 48-45 heading to the final 10 minutes of action.
 
Butler would add to their lead to open the fourth, scoring five of the first seven points to go back up by six at 53-47 before seeing Cloud County pull back to within one with 6:52 remaining in the game. Foul trouble and depth would begin to take their toll however late as a 9-0 Grizzly run would give BCCC their first double-digit lead of the contest at 62-52 with the deficit for CCCC never going back below seven in the final two-plus minutes of play.
 
After hitting on nearly 41 percent of their shots (13-for-32) in the first half, Cloud County would be limited to just eight made field goals (eight-of-33, 24.2 percent) in the second half and two-of-13 (15.3 percent) of their attempts from beyond the arc. Final totals would see CCCC finish with a 32.3 percent (21-for-65) shooting percentage from the floor while Butler would finish with a 40.9 percent (27-of-66) shooting percentage and outscore the T-Birds 24-13 in points off turnovers.
 
Leading all scorers in the contest would be Puzule with 17 points and two rebounds while Twyman would hit three triples and finish with 11 points in 36 minutes of action. Phillips would also reach double-figures for CCCC with 10 points and seven rebounds while Cox would record a game-high eight rebounds. Butler would be led by a team-high from both Mallory Cowman and Cymirah Williams off the bench.
 
What's Next?
Cloud County will return home Monday, December 13th to host Dodge City at 6 PM for their final game in the 2021 portion of their 2021-22 schedule. Dodge City has won seven of their last 10 games heading into their Saturday evening contest with Hutchinson Community College.