CONCORDIA, Kan. – Putting together their best offensive performance of the season, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would avenge an earlier season loss to Cowley Community College by earning an 80-65 home victory inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium to secure a first-round NJCAA Region VI Tournament home tournament game next weekend.
Picking up their 16th win of the year to improve to 16-13 overall, the T-Birds also improve to 11-12 overall in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference with one game remaining in their conference schedule. The Tigers drop their fifth game in their last seven outings to fall to 14-15 overall and 9-14 in the KJCCC as Cowley is now locked into the number-nine seed in the NJCAA Region VI Tournament that will get underway on Saturday, March 4th.
Expecting defensive intensity and pressure from the opening jump, Cloud County would see Cowley turn defense into offense by forcing eight T-Bird turnovers in the first quarter while jumping out to an early 6-3 lead. Getting an
Alize Ruiz layup at the 6:33 mark of the opening period to cut the Tiger lead down to one at 6-5, CCCC would take their second lead of the contest on their next offensive possession with a made shot from
Lilly Smith before seeing the Topeka, Kansas native connect on a made three two possessions later to cap off a 7-0 Cloud County run. Cowley would respond by pulling within one on a made Lorette Chene triple and eventually push back to take the lead at 13-12 as a back-and-forth opening quarter would come to a screeching halt with just two points being scored over the final 1:58 of the quarter. The points would come courtesy of a made
Maimouna Sissoko layup that would put the T-Birds back up by a score 14-13 as Cloud County would shoot nearly 43 percent from the floor in the opening period.
Scoring seven of the first nine points of the second quarter, Cloud County would extend their lead to 21-15 as the T-Birds would continue to knock down open shots when managing to retain possession of the ball on offense. Two made free throws and a made three for the Tigers would quickly bring Cowley back within a point at 21-20 with 6:40 left before halftime before seeing Cloud County end a two-plus minute scoring drought with a made Sissoko layup. CCCC would again take advantage of the layup to spark a 6-0 spurt to take their largest lead of the first half at 27-20, but another scoring drought over the following 3:27 would allow Cowley to get right back to where things were at 30-29 with just under two minutes left before halftime. In similar fashion to the first quarter, both teams would once again struggle to score in the final minutes of a quarter as the T-Birds would manage to score what would be the final two points of the first half on a
Cadence Nondorf layup to push their lead to three at 32-29 and hold a lead at the intermission break for the 13th time this season.
Having won each of the previous 12 games where they led at the half, Cloud County would use a 6-0 run to start the third quarter to extend their lead to nine at 38-29 as some much-needed breathing room would finally be found. Responding with four straight points, Cowley would claw their way back to within five twice over the next three minutes of the period before seeing a Ruiz layup at the 4:42 mark of the quarter spark CCCC's second 6-0 run in the period to take their first double-digit lead of the game at 46-35. Cloud County would manage to maintain their lead double-digit lead over the final 2:49 of the third quarter and lead by as many as 13 before seeing a Cowley three in the final two seconds cut a 12-point advantage back down to nine at 53-44 heading to the fourth.
Another made three by the Tigers to open the final 10 minutes of action would suddenly see Cloud County's lead cut all the way down to six as the T-Birds would need to find a response to try and slow momentum that Cowley would begin to build. Ending the run and responding by getting a pair of Ruiz free throws to push the lead back to eight, CCCC would create a Cowley turnover that would lead to a Nondorf made jumper as the Cloud County would push their lead back out to 10 and flip momentum back in their favor. Things would remain in the range of a seven to 10 point contest over the next four minutes of game time as CCCC would seemingly have a response for just about every Cowley score to make time start to become a factor for the Tigers. A made three from Smith would turn a 65-58 lead for Cloud County back into a 10-point advantage with four minutes remaining as the T-Birds would never let Cowley get any closer down the final stretch by hitting eight of their final nine free throws in the final 2:37 of the game to put away the Tigers and secure a winning season.
Shooting would by and large be the biggest difference in the game as Cloud County would be limited to just 59 total shot attempts but hit on 30 for a 50.8 percent field goal percentage while going five-of-13 (38.5 percent) from beyond the arc and 15-for-24 (62.5 percent) from the charity stripe. 20 of CCCC's 24 free throws would come in the fourth quarter as the two teams would combine for 46 free throws, making just 25 between the two with an off-shooting day for the Tigers see Cowley shoot 10 percent below their season average of 37.9 percent (23-of-82, 28.0 percent).
Three starters along with Sissoko would reach double-figures in the contest for Cloud County with the Bamako, Mali native scoring a team-high 21 points off the bench. A 15-point performance would come from Smith to finish two points shy of tying a career-high while Ruiz would score 14 points and grab 12 rebounds.
Te Araroa Sopoaga would also reach double-figures, scoring 10 points and grabbing seven rebounds to go along with four blocks. Cowley would get a game-high 28 points from Baylee Fincher, who would finish one rebound shy of a double-double.
What's Next?
The regular season finale for Cloud County will see CCCC head west to Colby, Kansas to take on Colby Community College at 5:30 PM on Wednesday, March 1st. In this season's previous matchup between the T-Birds and Trojans, Cloud County would pull away in the second half for a 76-49 home victory on January 14th. Colby fell by a score of 70-49 on Saturday afternoon in Great Bend at Barton and is currently 1-27 overall. A win for CCCC would not only see the T-Birds end the regular season on a three-game winning streak but also secure Cloud County a tie for sixth in the final KJCCC standings.
