CONCORDIA, Kan. – Overcoming a 12-point third-quarter deficit, it would be a 32-turnover performance that would be the undoing of the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team as part of a 70-65 overtime home loss to Butler Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium in Concordia, Kansas on Wednesday, February 9th.
 
Dropping the overtime decision in their first outing going to extra time this year, Cloud County is now 11-14 overall while falling to 7-12 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference with five games left in the regular season. Butler snaps a three-game losing skid dating back to January 29th with the win to improve to 15-8 overall and 10-8 in the KJCCC.
 
A tightly contested opening half of action would get underway with a Kay Hauata Phillips jumper in the paint as the Grizzlies and T-Birds would trade the first nine points of the contest to see BCCC take an early 5-4 lead with 6:43 left in the first quarter. Butler would then score seven of the next 10 points to extend their lead to 12-7 before taking their largest lead of the first half at 15-9 as Jada Knight would knock down a three with 3:42 remaining in the period. Freshman Paula Puzule would respond with a three of her own to bring CCCC back within three as Shakira Smith would bank home Cloud County's second three of the game in the final seconds to knot things up at 17-17.
 
Using a Rori Cox layup and Puzule trey to open the scoring in the second quarter, Cloud County would take their largest lead of the game at 22-17 and again at 25-20 as the opportunity would exist for the T-Birds to try and put some space between themselves and the Grizzlies who would be guilty of 12 first-half turnovers which led to five CCCC points. After a pair of Te Araroa Sopoaga free throws with 6:47 left would match the largest lead of the game for Cloud County, Butler would respond by scoring the final seven points of the first half to grab a 27-25 lead thanks in part to a last-second triple from Jaila Harding.
 
Not much would change in the opening minutes of the third quarter as the game would remain a battle with neither team being able to hold a lead of more than three points throughout the opening five minutes of the second half. Tying the game at 27-27 on a Sopoaga layup, Cloud County would see BCCC manage to score the next three points of the quarter before getting layups from both Phillips and Cox to put the T-Birds back out in front by a score of 33-32. Smith would cap off a 10-5 spurt over the opening 3:58 of the half with a layup before seeing the Grizzlies come back with 15-straight points as a once three-point lead would turn into a 12-point deficit for Cloud County. Ending the run would be Smith with a trey with 1:20 left in the quarter as the Ardmore, Oklahoma native would go on to score two more late points in the quarter for CCCC to offset a Grizzly layup that would put the score at 49-40 as things went to the fourth.
 
The deficit for the T-Birds would reach double-digits yet again in the opening moments of the fourth as CCCC would be unable to cut into the Butler lead until a Puzule three would spark a 10-3 run over the span of 2:47 to get Cloud County within three at 57-54 with 3:53 left in regulation. Butler would go on to connect on two free throws on their next possession to go back up five before giving up a layup to Sopoaga and a pair of Puzule free throws following a technical foul on BCCC to get the game within a point at 59-58 with 2:31 remaining. A growing crowd in anticipation of the men's game would begin to get behind the T-Birds as the next 2:16 of the contest would scoreless despite five missed shots and two missed free throws for CCCC to go along with two missed shots for Butler.
 
Forced to foul with 15 seconds left, CCCC would send Harding to the line where she would miss the first free throw but make the second to make it a two-point game which left the door open for the T-Birds to tie the game. Out of timeouts, Cloud County would push the ball into the front court as Smith would drive to the hoop and be rejected but not before a foul would be called that would lead to a pair of free-throw attempts for the freshman. Knocking down both attempts, Smith would tie things up at 60-60 and then help CCCC hold defensively to stop a potential game-winning layup from the Grizzlies to send things to overtime tied at 60-60.
 
After winning the tip, Cloud County would miss on an open three to open the door for Butler who would score on their first two offensive possessions to jump out to a 65-60 lead just 48 seconds into the extra period. A Sopoaga layup would get CCCC on the board in overtime as things would eventually become a one-point contest at 66-65 following Puzule's fourth trey of the game with 2:19 remaining. Another response from the Grizzlies however would push things back out to a three-point lead as the T-Birds would suffer a fate similar to the end of regulation by being held scoreless over the final two-plus minutes of action to allow BCCC to escape with the victory.
 
51 combined turnovers (32 for Cloud County, 19 for Butler) to go along with 23 missed free throws (13 by Cloud County, 10 by Butler) would prove to be crucial throughout the night as neither team would be all that efficient from the field with CCCC finishing with a 40.7 percent (24-of-59) shooting performance. Butler would take advantage despite shooting just 36.4 percent (24-of-66) by outscoring the T-Birds in both second-chance points (10-8) and points off turnovers (12-11) to overcome a 44-38 rebounding deficit. All 65 Cloud County points would be scored by the starting five while the Grizzlies would see 40 of their 70 points come from bench players.
 
Netting a game-high and new career-high with 17 points would be Smith who would go a perfect six-of-six from the free-throw line in addition to grabbing three rebounds. Cox and Puzule would both finish with 14 points while Sopoaga would record her seventh double-double of the year with 12 points and 16 rebounds. Butler would get 15 points apiece from both Harding and Knight to lead the way as four players would finish in double-figures.
 
What's Next?
Cloud County heads west to take on Dodge City Community College in a 1 p.m. contest on Saturday, February 12th. Earlier this season, the T-Birds put together arguably their best outing of the year against the Conquistadors, defeating DC3 by a score of 87-55 on December 13th. Dodge City took second-place Hutchinson down to the wire in Dodge City on Wednesday night, tying things at 68-68 with 1:18 remaining before ultimately falling 76-73 to drop to 14-10 overall and 9-9 in conference play.