ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. – A season-high 29 turnovers would lead to 29 points for host Cowley Community College to hand the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team a 90-56 road defeat inside W.S. Scott Auditorium in Arkansas City, Kansas on Wednesday, January 11th.
The loss puts Cloud County at 11-6 overall and 6-5 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Cowley improves to 9-8 overall and 4-7 in the KJCCC with one game remaining in the first round-robin portion of the double round-robin conference slate.
Scoring seven of the opening 10 points of the game, it would be all T-Birds in the opening two-and-a-half minutes of play with CCCC holding Cowley to just one made field goal in the early going. A made field goal by the Tigers that would cut the lead down to two at 7-5 would be offset by a made
Maimouna Sissoko layup as the Cloud County lead would remain intact until a Cowley field goal with 3:06 left in the first quarter that would tie the game at 10-10. In the final three minutes of the opening quarter, Cowley would manage to score 10 of the final 14 points of the quarter to grab a six-point lead at 20-14 heading into the second.
Turnovers would begin to become a factor over the course of the next 10 minutes of play as defensive full-court pressure from the Tigers would lead to eight turnovers for the T-Birds. After closing within four at 23-19 before a made three by Cowley's Grace Gilpin would set off an 11-3 run to push their lead to 12 at 34-22. With five minutes remaining before halftime, Cloud County would have an opportunity to cut into the lead and build some momentum heading into the break but see the Tigers hold the T-Birds scoreless for the remainder of the first half while scoring another 13 points to go up 49-24.
Things would not fare much better for Cloud County to open the third quarter as two made threes by Cowley would offset a pair of made baskets by the T-Birds with the lead growing even larger. An 11-2 run by Cloud County would come mid-way through the quarter as CCCC would begin to take advantage of the free throw line with seven of the 11 points coming from the charity stripe while holding Cowley to just one field goal over the span of nearly five minutes. Having sustained the T-Bird run, the Tigers would respond by closing out the quarter with three made triples as part of a 13-0 run over the final 2:16 of the quarter to take a 70-39 advantage into the fourth.
The scoring drought by Cloud County would carry over into the fourth as the T-Birds would be held without a point for the first 2:15 of the final period and without a made field goal for the first 3:07 of the quarter which would allow Cowley to add to their lead. Following a made layup from
Josephine Igherighe, both the T-Birds and Tigers would manage to go back and forth with points for the remainder of the contest as CCCC would never be able to build any momentum in a game due to an insurmountable deficit.
Shooting 34.6 percent (18-of-52) from the floor, Cloud County would be held to just one (one-of-14, 7.1 percent) made three while shooting 67.9 percent (19-of-28) from the free throw line compared to a 29-of-76 (38.2 percent) outing from Cowley that featured 14 made triples. Cloud County would outrebound Cowley by a 43-27 advantage but be outscored 20-14 in points in the paint in addition to the 39-point advantage for Cowley from beyond the arc.
Just one player for CCCC would reach double-figures with Sissoko scoring a game-high 20 points and nine rebounds to lead the T-Birds. Grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds would be
Alize Ruiz to go along with eight points while Igherighe would score nine points off the bench. Cowley would be led with four starters in double-figures as Gilpin would score a team-best 17 points.
What's Next?
CCCC is back at home to play host to Colby Community College with a 2 PM tip-off on Saturday, January 14th. The T-Birds are 8-2 overall at home this season, with both losses coming to teams either ranked or receiving votes in the latest NJCAA Top-25 poll while Colby dropped their 11th-straight contest with an 89-47 home loss to Barton on Wednesday night.
