GREAT BEND, Kan. – Falling into a 15-8 hole after one-quarter of action, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would be held under 50 points for just the third time this season while dropping a 55-41 road decision to 18th-ranked Barton County Community College inside the Kirkman Center in Great Bend, Kansas on Wednesday, February 8th.
Dropping their fourth consecutive road game to fall to 14-10 overall, Cloud County slips to 9-9 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Barton moves within half a game of second in the KJCCC standings by improving to 20-4 overall and 14-4 in conference play.
Trading buckets to begin the game in the opening minute of action, Cloud County would take their first lead of the contest on a
Te Araroa Sopoaga layup off a Barton turnover before allowing the Cougars to reclaim the lead on a made Brennan Kirchhoff three to put the score at 5-4 at the 6:57 mark of the first quarter. CCCC would respond with a
Maimouna Sissoko layup to go back up one at 6-5 before seeing another Barton trey start a 10-0 run as the T-Birds would endure a scoring drought of 5:38. Trailing by nine with just over a minute left in the quarter, Cloud County would end their scoring drought with another Sissoko jump shot in the paint before holding BCC scoreless over the final 1:38 of the quarter to keep the deficit at single-digits heading to the second.
Five quick points from CCCC would allow the T-Birds to get within two early on in the second period as the scoring drought for Barton to end the first would carry over and include the first 2:43 of the frame. Capping off a 9-0 run would be a pair of
Alize Ruiz free throws to tie the game at 15-15 with 7:33 left before halftime. Trading points over the next three-plus minutes of game time, ties between Cloud County and Barton would be seen at 17-17, 19-19, and 22-22 as neither team would be able to put any room between the other at the midway point of the second. Unfortunately for CCCC, the T-Birds would go the final 4:28 of the first half without making a field goal to allow a 10-0 BCC run to end the half and give the Cougars their first double-digit lead of the contest at 32-22 heading into the locker room.
After allowing a quick bucket to Barton on their opening possession of the second half, Cloud County would get back in the scoring column with a made three from Sissoko to get back within nine at 34-25 as only five points would be scored between the two teams over the opening five minutes of the third quarter. Buckets would be traded between teams surrounding the third quarter media timeout with 4:47 left in the quarter before four points from the Cougars would put the deficit for CCCC at a game-high 15 with 1:27 left in the quarter. The final six points would then be scored by Cloud County to once again get back within single-digits at 42-33 to get within striking distance heading to the fourth.
Barton would use a 7-2 run to open the fourth and build their lead back out to 14 at 49-35 as CCCC would be in danger of letting the game get away from them entirely with just over seven minutes remaining. Turning to Sissoko for a three-point play to pull within 11 would momentarily give the T-Birds a shot of momentum with a
Josephine Igherighe triple offsetting a pair of BCC free throws to get back within 10, but the T-Birds would get no closer the rest of the way by being held scoreless the final 3:37 of the contest while seeing Barton score the final four points of the game finish off their fourth-straight win.
The 41-point outing from Cloud County would be a season low for the T-Birds, eclipsing the previous low of 42 points that would come at the hands of Barton in their last meeting on December 7th while also shooting a season-low seven free throws to be held 17 attempts under their season average at the charity stripe. Hitting on just 25.9 percent (15-of-58) of their shots from the floor, CCCC would go five-of-20 (25.0 percent) from three and get outrebounded 43-33. Barton would hold a 9-8 advantage in points off turnovers and a 7-3 advantage in second-chance points while also outscoring the T-Birds 30-16 in points in the paint.
Just one player for Cloud County would reach double-figures with Sissoko scoring a team-best 14 points to go along with seven rebounds as the next highest scorer for CCCC would be Igherighe with seven. Just four days removed from a 29-point, 16-rebound performance against Pratt, Ruiz would be limited to just four points and seven rebounds in 30 minutes of action. Only four players would account for Barton's 55 points on the night with Jenny Nkem Womsi scoring 22 points and hauling in a game-high 15 rebounds while Morgan Meyers would score 19 points with 15 points coming from beyond the arc.
What's Next?
Cloud County will close out its week on Saturday, February 11th with a 2 PM road contest at number-19 ranked Butler Community College in El Dorado. In a battle of the top-two teams in the KJCCC on Wednesday night, the Grizzlies dropped a 70-63 decision to 11th-ranked Dodge City on Wednesday evening in Dodge City to have a 10-game winning streak snapped while falling to 20-4 overall. Earlier this season, Butler defeated Cloud County 69-55 in the lone earlier meeting between teams this season.
