GARDEN CITY, Kan. – A slow start leading to a 14-point first-half deficit would not stop the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team as the T-Birds would hold host Garden City Community College without a made field goal in the final quarter of action to outscore the Lady Broncbusters 36-19 in the second half to earn a 60-55 come-from-behind road victory inside Conestoga Arena in Garden City, Kansas on Wednesday, February 22nd.
 
Snapping a season-high four-game losing streak, Cloud County picks up their 15th win of the year to improve to 15-13 overall and 10-12 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while earning their second two-game sweep of a season foe. Garden City falls for the fifth time in the past six outings to fall to 9-19 overall and 5-17 in the KJCCC.
 
Trading the lead three times with Garden City in the opening two and a half minutes of the contest, Cloud County would see their only leads of the first half come on a game-opening Jessi Brummett layup before an Alize Ruiz free throw with 7:37 left in the first quarter would break a 2-2 deadlock to put the T-Birds up 3-2 in the opening minutes of the contest. GCCC would then score 14 straight points while holding CCCC scoreless for a span of 3:29 to take a 16-13 lead thanks in part to a 50 percent shooting percentage in the opening 10 minutes of the game. Snapping the scoring drought with a Kayla Horton triple, Cloud County would respond with seven straight points to get back within six at 16-10 before being held scoreless over the final 2:14 of the first period while seeing Garden City score four points over the final 1:12 to double up the T-Birds 20-10.
 
Both team would score on their opening possessions of the second quarter as Cloud County would see Garden City keep their lead at double-digits for the first two minutes of the period before using a Lilly Smith triple to spark a 5-0 spurt that would cut the Lady Broncbuster lead in half at 24-19. Both teams would then endure a scoring drought of nearly three minutes that would be snapped by GCCC going on an 8-2 run to go back up 11 at 32-21 with 2:25 left before halftime. CCCC would answer with Smith's second made three of the first half but once again see the final four points of a quarter scored by the host Lady Broncbusters to push their lead to 36-24 at the half.
 
The deficit for Cloud County would reach its high-water mark just 1:32 into the second half as four of the first six points of the third quarter would be scored by Garden City to put CCCC in a 40-26 hole after holding Garden City to just 44 points in the first outing in Concordia. A Maimouna Sissoko three-point play would then flip momentum back in the favor of the T-Birds as CCCC would score 10 of the next 12 points to get back within six at 42-36 with 3:06 left in the third. An offensive putback layup for Dayshawna Carter would be the first made field goal for the Lady Broncbusters in almost six minutes of game action and would wind up serving as the final made field goal of the game by GCCC. Cloud County would outscore Garden City 5-2 in the final two minutes of the frame to keep the deficit at six and still within reach of a comeback with 10 minutes left in the game.
 
Continuing to close the gap with a Sissoko trey to open the fourth quarter, Cloud County would see Garden City manage to keep the T-Birds from fully erasing the deficit by scoring four free throws over the first 3:13 of the period. Off of a missed free throw by the Lady Broncbusters, CCCC would get a Cadence Nondorf layup that would start a 9-0 run over the next two minutes of game time that would suddenly see Cloud County out in front by a score of 55-51. Two free throws on two separate possessions by GCCC would cut the T-Bird lead in half with just over three minutes left in the game as the charity stripe would continue to provide the Garden City offense in the quarter.
 
 Down the final stretch of the contest, Cloud County would get a Sissoko made bucket in the paint off an inbounds pass from Josephine Igherighe before a pair of free throws that would give the T-Birds their biggest lead of the game at 59-53. Two more Lady Broncbuster free throws would bring things back to a four-point contest heading into the final minute of the game as Garden City would force a turnover before turning the ball over themselves on their next possession to give the ball right back to Cloud County. The T-Birds would then begin to run the clock down before putting up a desperation three with 24 seconds left that would be off the mark and fall back into the hands of GCCC. One final defensive stop from CCCC would all but end the game as Garden City would foul with 2.4 seconds left and allow Nondorf to split a pair of free throws and put the final margin of victory for Cloud County at five.
 
Defense would highlight the night for both teams as neither team would shoot above 35 percent from the floor with Cloud County hitting on 33.3 percent (21-of-63) of their shots while the Lady Broncbusters would be held to a 27.8 percent (15-for-54) field goal percentage. Points off turnovers (14-9) and second-chance points (11-6) would favor the T-Birds in the contest as would a 41-35 advantage in rebounds as the only statistical advantage that Garden City would hold in the contest came from the charity stripe by outscoring CCCC 20-11 in free throws.
 
Leading all scorers in the game would be Sissoko with a 22-point, 13-rebound performance for her fifth double-double of the year while Igherighe would score 13 points and haul in five rebounds. Grabbing another 16 rebounds on the night would be Ruiz to close in on the single-season rebounding record at Cloud County as the Las Cruces, New Mexico native is now just 25 rebounds away from breaking a 31-year-old record set by Shanele Stires during the 1991-92 season.
 
What's Next?
Cloud County will host Cowley Community College for sophomore day with a 2 PM tip-off slated for Saturday, February 25th. The game will have significant implications in the KJCCC standings for NJCAA Region VI Tournament seeding as the T-Birds currently are one game ahead of the Tigers for the eighth seed which would come with hosting a first-round NJCAA Region VI Tournament game on Saturday, March 4th. In the last meeting between squads on January 11th, Cowley handed Cloud County their largest loss of the season by defeating CCCC 90-56 in Arkansas City.