CONCORDIA, Kan. – Building a 16-point lead midway through the second quarter, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team forced visiting Coffeyville Community College into 24 turnovers to score 23 points to go along with 15 second-chance points to claim a 78-70 home win inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday, January 27th.
Rebounding from a Wednesday night loss at Seward County, Cloud County earns their 12th win of the year to improve to 12-7 overall and 8-6 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference. Coffeyville drops to 13-7 overall and 8-6 in the KJCCC after being unable to secure a season-sweep of the T-Birds as Cloud County has won four of the previous six matchups between teams.
Following four lead changes in the opening four minutes of play, a
Bailey Burns triple allowed Cloud County to pull even with Coffeyville at 12-12 before seeing two and a half minutes of scoreless basketball ensue with the T-Birds ending the drought for both teams with a Josephine Igherige layup to reclaim the lead at 14-12. A pair of Igherighe free throws extended the lead a minute later to four as the T-Birds extended their lead to six on a
Kirya Mack layup with 2:04 left in the opening quarter before seeing five of the final seven points of the quarter scored by Coffeyville to put things at a 20-17 Cloud County advantage going to the second.
Two quick buckets by CCCC allowed the T-Birds to extend their lead to three possessions at 24-17 with Cloud County outscoring the Red Ravens 13-6 over the opening 2:59 of the period to grab their first double-digit lead of the game. After seeing Coffeyville get back within eight on a layup, Igherighe managed to score a conventional three-point play to start an 8-0 T-Bird run that gave CCCC their largest lead of the game at 43-27 with a
Darcy Lierz triple capping off the run. In all of 38 seconds, Coffeyville scored six quick points as defensive pressure began to affect the T-Birds and allow the Red Ravens to get back within 10 and eventually eight as Cloud County went the final four-plus minutes of the first half without scoring to lead 43-35 at the half.
A Burns three to open the second half allowed Cloud County to go back up double-digits before seeing Coffeyville score 11 of the next 13 points to see an 11-point advantage drop to two at 48-46 as offensive woes began to become a problem for the T-Birds. Trading layups over the next minute of play, Cloud County did not allow Coffeyville to pull even as the offense started to show up again for CCCC with eight straight points to close out the quarter while holding Coffeyville scoreless for the final 4:04 of the third to go back up 10 at 58-48.
Doing anything and everything in their control to keep the Red Ravens from making another run to close the gap, Cloud County maintained their lead over the first half of the final period to lead 64-55 until four quick points for the Red Ravens that brought things to within five at 64-59 with 5:26 left. Scoring the next three points of the game at the charity stripe, Burns kept the T-Birds from seeing their advantage drop any further as a 7-2 run allowed Cloud County to go back up 10 at 71-61 with just over two minutes remaining with the free-throw line starting to become a key factor in maintaining their lead. Matching Coffeyville with a layup on their next offensive possession, the T-Birds managed to keep the Red Ravens from getting any closer than seven over the final 1:41 of the game as two
Maimouna Sissoko layups fueled CCCC to finishing off an eight-point win.
Getting to the free-throw line 30 times compared to just 11 total attempts by Coffeyville, Cloud County finished the game 22-for-30 (73.3 percent) at the charity stripe to go along with a 26-of-55 (47.3 percent) performance from the field with the T-Birds hitting four of 14 (28.6 percent) three-point attempts. Coffeyville finished the game with a 44.8 percent (26-of-58) field goal percentage and went nine-for-23 (39.1 percent) from three, but was hurt by 24 turnovers and the limited attempts at the charity stripe.
Scoring a game-high and new career-high 29 points was Burns after getting to the line 15 times and connecting on 11 attempts while adding two rebounds and two steals. Adding 20 points and six rebounds was Sissoko to go along with four assists while Igherighe managed to hit all eight free-throw attempts as part of a 12-point outing. Coffeyville had three players in double-figures and was led by a team-high 19 from Karys Washington off the bench.
What's Next?
Back-to-back road games for Cloud County will begin with a trip to Great Bend, Kansas to take on Barton Community College in a 5:30 PM contest on Wednesday, January 31st. CCCC has dropped their last nine outings against the Cougars, having last won on January 9, 2019, with an 80-68 home win over BCC. Barton defeated Cloud County 63-58 in Concordia back on November 26th of this season and picked up an 80-49 win over Pratt at home Saturday evening to improve to 15-5 overall and 10-4 in the KJCCC.
