ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. – Trailing throughout the entire first quarter and up until the midway point of the second quarter, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would grab a 32-27 halftime lead on their way to a 77-63 road victory over Cowley Community College inside W.S. Scott Auditorium in Arkansas City, Kansas on Saturday, February 19th.
The 14-point win comes for the T-Birds following a 76-48 defeat to Cowley just three weeks ago as CCCC moves to 14-15 overall and 10-13 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference. The defeat for Cowley likely drops the Tigers out of consideration for a first-round bye in the NJCAA Region VI Tournament as Cowley is now 17-11 overall and 13-10 in the KJCCC.
Falling into a quick 5-0 deficit, Cloud County would be held off the scoreboard for the first two and a half minutes of action before a pair of
Kennedy Becker free throws would put CCCC into the scoring column to trail 5-2. The Tiger lead would range between one and five points throughout the next three-plus minutes of action as the T-Birds would manage to stay within two possessions until a
Te Araroa Sopoaga triple would turn a 9-7 deficit into a 10-9 lead for Cloud County. Cowley would respond with a three of their own as part of a 5-0 spurt to go back up four at 14-10 with 3:51 remaining in the quarter as the T-Birds would force ties at 14-14 and again at 18-18 before giving up a layup in the last 30 seconds of the period to see the Tigers take a 20-18 lead into the second quarter.
A made bucket by Becker would bring the score even again at 20-20 as CCCC would force three ties in the opening four minutes of the quarter before finally reclaiming the lead at 26-24 on another Becker field goal. Capping off a 10-0 Cloud County run would be sophomore
Rori Cox to put the T-Birds up eight at 32-24 as the final 3:13 of the first half would go scoreless following a Cowley made triple to pull back within five at 32-27.
Splitting a pair of free throws to open the scoring in the second half would be Sopoaga before seeing Cowley score the next four to get back within two at 33-31. Cloud County would then score six of the next nine points to go back up five as
Kay Hauata Phillips would account for four of the six T-Bird points to keep the Tigers from an attempt to pull even. After a made layup from Martyna Kowalska would bring Cowley back within three at 39-36, Cloud County would go on a 7-0 spurt to take their first double-digit lead of the game at 46-36. Another drought however from the T-Birds late in a quarter would allow the Tigers to score five straight to cut the lead in half, but a Sopoaga jumper and
Paula Puzule made three with 13 seconds left in the period would put CCCC back up 10 at 51-41 going to the fourth.
Neither team could miss in the opening two minutes of the final stanza of the game as both Cowley and Cloud County would connect on their first three field goals of the quarter with two of the three T-Bird shots coming from beyond the arc to extend their lead to 59-47. Following the 14-point outburst between the teams, things would settle down as the Tigers would pull within seven at 61-54 heading into the final media timeout of the contest with 6:28 remaining. The Cloud County lead would remain at seven just over two minutes later as the T-Birds would need a bucket to try and put the game out of reach. Puzule would be the one to deliver as the freshman would hit her fourth triple of the game to make it a 10-point contest with 3:21 remaining before hitting another triple on the next offensive possession to offset a Cowley jumper. With the double-digit lead and time running low for Cowley, the Tigers would begin to attempt shots from beyond the arc as empty possessions would allow CCCC to maintain their lead and eventually tack on a few final points in the last 30 seconds to earn their 11th win of the year by double-digits.
17 points for Cloud County off 18 Cowley turnovers would be a big advantage for the T-Birds who would also outrebound Cowley 38-28 and score seven second-chance points. Shooting 42.9 percent (27-of-63) from the field, CCCC would also hit on seven-of-25 (28.0 percent) of their attempts from three and 72.7 percent (16-for-22) from the charity stripe while Cowley would finish the game 23-of-61 (37.7 percent) from the field.
Leading Cloud County with a team-best 20 points would be Puzule who would finish just two points shy of a career-best in addition to grabbing six rebounds and playing all 40 minutes in the contest. Sopoaga would pick up another double-double by scoring 16 points and 10 rebounds to go with four assists while both Cox (15) and Phillips (11) would join their teammates in double-figures. All 63 points for Cowley would come from their starting five, with a game-high 21 points coming from Kowalska.
What's Next?
The final game of the 2021-22 regular season will come at home for the T-Birds as Cloud County will play host to Colby Community College for a 6 p.m. contest on Wednesday, February 23rd. The game will mark the final home game of the year for CCCC as Cloud County is locked into the number-10 seed in the upcoming NJCAA Region VI Tournament. Colby, who is locked into the number 11-seed in the Region VI Tournament, was defeated by a score of 70-55 to fall to 8-19 overall and 5-16 in the KJCCC.
