CONCORDIA, Kan. – Putting together one of their best offensive performances of the season, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would blow past Dodge City Community College by a final score of 87-55 inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium in Concordia, Kansas on Monday, December 13th.
 
Getting back into the win column for the first time in three tries, CCCC is now 7-7 overall and 3-5 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Dodge City followed up Saturday's 33 point loss at Dodge City with a 32 point loss to the T-Birds to move to 9-5 overall and 4-4 in the KJCCC.
 
Following a slow start from both teams to open the game, an entertaining opening quarter of action would be had as five lead changes would be seen with neither team able to jump out to a big lead. After giving up the first three points of the game, Cloud County would manage to get back-to-back buckets in the paint from Rori Cox and Kay Hauata Phillips to take their first lead of the game before falling behind again at 6-4. A Shakira Smith triple with 6:03 left in the quarter would put CCCC back out front 7-6 as the next eight points of the game would be scored by the T-Bird to go up 12-6. Makayla Twyman's second three of the contest would come with 4:12 left in the period to give Cloud County the largest lead of the first quarter at 15-8 as Dodge City would respond by scoring the next eight points to go up 16-15 before giving up a last-second layup to Smith to see CCCC reclaim the lead at 17-16.
 
Two additional lead changes would kick off the second quarter as DCCC would get a bucket to open the quarter before allowing Smith to hit her second trey of the contest. Kennedy Becker and Te Araroa Sopoaga would then combine for back-to-back buckets to put the T-Birds up six at 24-18 before seeing the lead grow to 10 at 32-22 with four minutes left in the first half. Finally able to work with some separation on the scoreboard, Cloud County would continue to click offensively with Smith converting a three-point play with 1:02 remaining to put CCCC up 40-28, but the Conquistadors would score the final five points of the first half to get back within seven at 40-33.
 
Dodge City would use a 6-2 start to the second half to get as close as four at 42-38 with 7:18 left in the third quarter, but Cloud County would answer right back with a bucket from Becker and a Twyman triple to go back up eight. After a free throw from DCCC, Paula Puzule would connect on a three to get things back to a double-digit lead for CCCC as the lead would grow to 13 at 55-42 with 4:18 left in the quarter. The final four-plus minute of the third would be all T-Birds as the offense would continue to click and lead to easy layups and opportunities at the free-throw line and allow Cloud County to go up 67-46 heading to the fourth.
 
CCCC's 20-plus point lead would never be in danger in the fourth quarter as the Conquistadors would only be able to get back within 19 on a jumper to open the quarter before allowing the T-Birds to go on a 16-4 run to break things open to a 31-point lead at 83-52 midway through the quarter. Down the stretch, offense would finally start to stall out a bit for Cloud County but it wouldn't matter as Dodge City would have offensive struggles themselves with the T-Birds scoring four of the final seven points and leading by as many as 33 in the final minute.
 
Finishing just a percentage point shy of tying their season-high, Cloud County would shoot 55 percent (33-of-60) from the floor while shooting a sizzling 55 percent (11-for-20) from deep and 83.3 percent (10-of-12) from the free-throw line. Dodge City would muster just a 20-of-65 (30.8 percent) performance from the field and a four-of-23 (17.4 percent) outing from beyond the arc while hitting on just 11-of-19 (57.9 percent) of their free-throw attempts.
 
Winning the rebounding battle 39-32, Cloud County would also hold an 18-6 advantage in second-chance points and 36-26 advantage in points in the paint. DCCC would manage to win the points off turnovers battle by a margin of 25-18.
 
A six-of-seven performance from beyond the arc by Puzule would lead to a game-high 18 points for the freshman who would also add four rebounds and one assist. Smith would net a career-high 15 points off the bench while Sopoaga would score 17 points and provide six assists while playing a team-high 37 minutes. Dodge City got a team-high 16 points from Bree Stephens as the starters would account for 38 of the team's 55 points.
 
What's Next?
Two of Cloud County's first three games following a three-plus week layoff will come at home as the T-Birds will host Coffeyville Community College to resume action on Wednesday, January 5th at 6 PM. Coffeyville had the conference bye on Monday to begin their layoff that will see the Red Ravens 25 days between games as their last outing came on December 11th in a 68-54 road loss to Independence.