GREAT BEND, Kan. – A 13-3 run midway through the first quarter of action saw the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team have a 3-2 advantage turn into a 15-6 deficit as host Barton outscored managed to earn a 61-45 home win inside the Barton Gymnasium in Great Bend, Kansas on Wednesday, January 31st.
A third-straight road loss for the T-Birds drops CCCC to 12-8 overall on the season and 8-7 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Barton remains just one game back of second place in the KJCCC standings by improving to 16-5 overall and 11-4 in conference play.
The early deficit for Cloud County came following a
Bailey Burns made three to put the T-Birds on the scoreboard after seeing the opening tip-off won by Barton and leading to a McKenna Vogl made field goal with Barton hitting two of their first three shot attempts of the game while holding CCCC to just two made field goals in the first quarter. Burns added a second made triple with 5:18 left in the period off a pass from
Kirya Mack to tie things at 6-6 before seeing the Cougars score the nine points of the quarter with a Burns free throw with 1:10 left in the first ending the scoring for both squads with BCC holding an eight-point advantage.
In the second, Cloud County got a
Josephine Igherighe layup to pull within six before seeing a 5-0 spurt from Barton give the Cougars their first double-digit lead of the game at 20-9 with just under seven minutes remaining before halftime. The lead for Barton quickly grew to 16 as a 12-2 run followed to cap off a 17-2 run by BCC that saw the deficit for the T-birds grow to as many as 21 at 32-11. Making a late push to try and cut into the BCC lead, Cloud County ended the first half by scoring six of the final eight points of the second quarter with Barton doubling up CCCC 34-17 to head into halftime.
Following a made three from
Destiny Smith to open the scoring in the third quarter, Cloud County saw Barton score six straight as the Cougars made three of their first four shots of the second half to extend their lead back to 20 at 40-20 with the T-Birds unable to cut into the deficit. Barton took their largest lead of the game at 47-25 with 4:24 left in the third as Quezia Bertoni managed to hit from three before being answered by a triple from Smith with CCCC scoring nine of the final 11 points and holding the Cougars to just two free throws over the final 3:37 of the quarter to pull back within 15 at 49-34.
Trading the first four points of the final period of action, Cloud County continued to cut into the BCC lead by scoring seven of the ensuing nine points to get to within 10 at 53-43 with still 5:57 remaining in the contest to try and complete a potential comeback from a 22-point deficit. Unfortunately for the T-Birds, CCCC saw the next 4:32 of the game go scoreless for Cloud County which allowed Barton to score six straight points to go back up 16 at 59-43 with 1:37 remaining to put the game away with each team scoring two points over the last 1:25 of action to give BCC a fourth-straight double-digit victory.
With neither team shooting all that well, Cloud County was held to a 22.4 percent (15-of-67) shooting percentage with eight of their made field goals coming from beyond the arc after going eight-for-27 (29.6 percent) from three and seven-of-12 (58.3 percent) from the free-throw line. Faring slightly better was Barton by going 25-of-65 (38.5 percent) from the floor and five-for-15 (33.3 percent) from deep despite a six-of-14 (42.9 percent) effort from the charity stripe. Rebounding was a 55-44 advantage for the Cougars as was a 16-4 BCC advantage in second-chance points with Cloud County also getting outscored 26-10 in points in the paint with Barton holding an advantage in most statistical categories.
A team-high 13 points from Smith saw CCCC's starting five score all 45 points for the T-Birds on the evening with Burns also reaching double-figures by scoring 11 points in 39 minutes of action. Despite being held to six points,
Maimouna Sissoko recorded a team-best 15 rebounds and added three blocks for CCCC while Igherighe scored seven points and had nine rebounds including three offensive rebounds. Barton's Vivian Onugha led all players in the contest with game-highs of 17 points and 18 rebounds as the Cougars saw four of their five starters reach double-figures.
What's Next?
Another road game to close out the week will send Cloud County out west to Garden City to take on a reeling Lady Broncbuster team that has lost eight straight games with a 2 PM tip-off on Saturday, February 3rd. Garden City last won with a 92-54 home victory over Northwest Kansas Tech on December 9th and has seen seven of their eight losses during their losing streak come by 10 points or less. GCCC is currently 10-10 overall and 5-10 in the KJCCC as the T-Birds earned a 58-54 win at home over GCCC back on November 29th.
