CONCORDIA, Kan. – Failing to break the 50-point mark for the first time this season, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would see season lows in made field goals and field goal percentage lead to a 76-48 home defeat to Cowley County Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Monday, January 31st.
Falling to 10-12 overall, the T-Birds now sit at 6-10 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference with eight games remaining in the regular season. Cowley bounces back from a home loss on Saturday against Hutchinson to improve to 13-8 overall and 9-7 in the KJCCC to remain in the hunt to finish in the top-four of the conference standings.
Trading 5-0 spurts in the opening three minutes of the game, neither team would be able to grab a large lead in the early going due to poor shooting from both squads in the first quarter. CCCC's first lead of the game would come at the 6:48 mark of the first half on a pair of
Te Araroa Sopoaga free throws before seeing the Tigers respond with three straight free throws of their own to reclaim the lead at 8-7 two minutes later. The largest lead of the first quarter for either team would come at the 3:46 mark of the first period as Baylee Fincher would score two of her 10 first-quarter points on a layup to make it a 13-7 contest before seeing
Paula Puzule cut the lead in half on a triple on the next trip down the floor. Cloud County would manage to get back within a point on their next offensive possession as Puzule would hit a jumper before seeing Cowley close out the frame by scoring four of the final six points to grab a 17-14 lead.
The Tiger lead would grow to as many as eight in the next period as seven of the first nine points would be scored by Cowley to make it a 24-16 game with 5:05 left in the first half before seeing the T-Birds score the next four points in a span of 26 seconds to cut the lead in half. Cowley would once more push their lead out to eight at 28-20 with just over three minutes left in the second quarter, but a strong finish to the opening half by CCCC would see the T-Birds hit the final three field goals of the half and allow just a free throw to get back within three at 29-26 going into the break.
Continuing their surge out of halftime, Cloud County would get buckets from
Shakira Smith and Sopoaga to open the third quarter and reclaim the lead at 30-29, but a pair of Cowley free throws would put the Tigers back on top once again. The lead would be traded twice more in the opening five minutes of the third quarter with CCCC holding a 36-35 lead before a Fincher three would put Cowley back out in front 38-36. The triple by Fincher would spark a 21-2 run to finish out the third quarter as the T-Birds would go the final 6:15 of the quarter without a made field goal.
Facing a 56-38 deficit and needing to find any sort of momentum they could grab on to and attempt to make a comeback, CCCC would score four of the first six points of the fourth quarter before allowing a 12-0 run to put the game out of reach as the T-Birds would face one of their largest deficits of the game at 70-42 with 4:44 remaining. Cowley would go on to push their lead to 30 at 74-44 with just over a minute remaining in the contest before seeing two late field goals from Cloud County account for four of their 10 points in the final stanza.
Holding a commanding 22-6 advantage in points off turnovers, the Tigers would also double up the T-Birds 32-16 in points in the paint and score the only four fast-break points of the game despite getting only three points from bench players. Cloud County's season-low shooting performance would see CCCC go 18-of-62 (29.0 percent) from the field while also struggling from beyond the arc (five-of-23, 21.7 percent).
Both Smith and Sopoaga would finish with 10 points for Cloud County with Sopoaga also grabbing seven rebounds and providing three assists.
Kennedy Becker would score six points and grab a team-high eight rebounds in her sixth start of the year while Puzule would finish with eight points while playing a team-high 35 minutes. Cowley would get a game-high 28 points from Fincher who would also assist on seven of the Tigers 25 made field goals and record a game-high five steals.
What's Next?
Cloud County will look to break their current trend on Wednesday, February 2nd when they head to face a reeling Pratt squad that has lost their last 13 contests at 5:30 PM. The Beavers last played on January 27th when they lost 70-52 at home to Butler and last won back on November 20th, 2021 with a 70-48 win over NW Kansas Tech.
