GREAT BEND, Kan. – Trailing by as many as 19 and facing a 14-point deficit heading to the fourth quarter, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would be unable to complete a late comeback on the road as part of a 77-69 defeat at Barton Community College inside the Barton Gymnasium in Great Bend, Kansas on Wednesday, December 8th.
 
The loss drops CCCC to 6-6 overall and 2-4 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the host Cougars improve to 5-7 overall and 2-4 in the KJCCC to give head coach Alan Clark his 100th career win at Barton.
 
A back-and-forth opening four minutes of play would feature three lead changes as the teams would trade buckets with the T-Birds opening the scoring with a Te Araroa Sopoaga layup before retaking the lead on a Rori Cox layup following a Barton three. Two Sopoaga free throws would allow CCCC to regain the lead at 6-5 with 6:17 remaining in the first quarter before seeing back-to-back three's from BCCC allow the Cougars to go up 11-6. Cloud County would then be held to just one field goal over the course of the next three minutes of action as offensive struggles would start to make an appearance but wouldn't affect the deficit as CCCC would be able to keep within five points. A Kennedy Becker layup with 1:27 left in the quarter would allow the T-Birds to pull within one at 15-14, but the Cougars would end the quarter by scoring seven of the final eight points to open their lead up to seven at 22-15 heading to the second quarter.
 
Another Barton triple would allow BCCC to take their first double-digit lead of the game in the opening seconds of the second quarter as Cloud County would be unable to string together a run that would cut into the lead. After pulling back to within seven at 27-20 with 4:53 left in the first half, the Cougars would manage to end the half by scoring the next eight points while allowing just a pair of free throws to CCCC by Jessi Brummett as the T-Birds would be held to just seven second-quarter points to trail 35-22 at the half.
 
Using a 7-2 run to open the third quarter, Cloud County would appear to be building some momentum in the early stages of the second half before seeing BCCC heat up again from beyond the arc with back-to-back threes to go back up 14 at 43-29. The Barton lead would not fall back into single digits for the remainder of the third quarter as the Cougars would lead by as many as 16 in the quarter to put CCCC in a 53-39 hole heading to the fourth quarter.
 
Barton would put together a strong start to the final period of play as BCCC would trade two-point Cloud County buckets with three-point field goals of their own on their way to taking their largest lead of the game at 65-46 with 5:09 remaining in the game. A Makayla Twyman triple on the ensuing CCCC possession would spark a 15-4 run by the T-Birds that would allow Cloud County to get back within eight at 69-61 with 1:45 left in the game. Two Barton free throws would break the run by CCCC, but the T-Birds would have a response with a Paula Puzule triple to get within seven with 40 seconds left. Needing to foul, Cloud County would begin to send BCCC to the free-throw line where the Cougars would be able to seal things by hitting six of their final eight free throws and holding off CCCC as the lead would never drop below seven in the final minute.
 
21 offensive rebounds would allow Cloud County to finish with a slim 38-36 overall advantage in rebounding to go along with a 15-11 advantage in second-chance points. The T-Birds would also hold a 21-14 advantage in points off turnovers but see a 20.6 percent (seven-for-34) shooting performance from the floor in the first half offset a strong second half (15-32, 46.9 percent) to finish the game 22-of-66 (33.3 percent) from the field. Barton would finish just under 50 percent by hitting on 25-of-51 (49.0 percent) of their shots while going 10-for-26 (38.5 percent) from beyond the arc.
 
A 15-point, 10-rebound double-double from Sopoaga would lead CCCC as the freshman would play 33 minutes before fouling out in the fourth quarter to finish as one of three T-Birds in double-figures. Shakira Smith would score 12 points on four three-point field goals off the bench while Twyman would score 10 points and add three rebounds as part of her second straight start. Barton finished with five players in double-figures to account for 72 of their 77 total points which included a game-high and career-high 22 points from Morgan Meyers.
 
What's Next?
Cloud County will play their final road game of the 2021 portion of their schedule with a road trip to El Dorado, Kansas, and the Power Plant to take on number-14 nationally-ranked Butler Community College for a 2 p.m. tip-off on Saturday, December 11th. The Grizzlies dropped their second-straight game on Wednesday night, falling 60-57 on the road to Dodge City to move to 10-2 overall and 5-2 in KJCCC play.