Women's Basketball | 11/14/2024 8:14:00 PM

Box Score The Cloud County Community College women's basketball team concluded its non-conference schedule with a convincing 92-53 home win over Bethany College JV on Thursday, November 14.

Cloud County ends the non-conference slate a perfect 5-0, marking the program's best start to a season since the 2017-2018 year. The T-Birds will host Seward County Community College in its Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference opener on Wednesday, November 20 at 6 pm inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium. The two teams have split their last four matchups, with each team winning two games on their own home floor. The Seward County Saints are currently 3-1 overall this year, and will host Northeastern Junior College on Monday, November 18 at 6 pm, prior to making the trip to Concordia.

Cloud County captured its first double-digit lead with just over five minutes remaining in the first quarter when freshman guard Bre Frazier knocked down a jumper in transition to give the T-Birds an 18-7 advantage over the visiting Swedes. Seven players for Cloud County scored in the opening frame, led by sophomore guard TiAna Davis with nine early points, and the T-Birds ended the period on a 15-6 run to lead 33-13.

The T-Birds extended their lead out to as many as 28 points in the second quarter as they once again used their defense to create scoring opportunities for their offense. Cloud County forced Bethany into committing 21 turnovers in the opening half, resulting in nine fast break points and 13 points off turnovers. Cloud County also crashed the offensive boards, gathering 11 offensive rebounds and tallying 14 second-chance points through the first two quarters of play. The T-Birds took a 52-26 lead into halftime.

Davis opened the second half with a layup and the Swedes never got within 28 points the rest of the way. Cloud County registered 25 points on 47.8 percent shooting from the field in the third quarter, ultimately grabbing a 77-35 advantage at the end of the period before cruising to the 39 point home win.

Through the first five games, Cloud County is holding opponents to 55.2 points per game on 35.0 percent shooting and they have a 44.4 to 35.2 advantage on the glass. The T-Birds are also forcing 12 more turnovers per game, as the team is averaging 16.4 steals per game. Since their season opener, an 85-64 home win over Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa on November 3, no team has scored more than 56 points against Cloud County's high-level defense, and the last four opponents are shooting under 24 percent from behind the arc and making an average of 4.3 three-pointers per game. 

Four T-Birds finished in double-figures, led by freshman Shea Wurtz with 20 points on 10-of-12 shooting to go along with eight rebounds. Davis added 18 points. The transfer from Shorter College finished the night 6-of-9 from the floor, 2-of-3 from long-range, and 4-of-5 from the free-throw line. Frazier scored 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while freshman Talasia Thomas had 12 points, five rebounds and four steals. 

The T-Birds notched 40 points off the bench. Sophomore Darcy Lierz celebrated her birthday Thursday by scoring nine points and pulling down four rebounds. Sophomore guard Kiley Smich didn't score, but she matched Wurtz with a team-leading eight rebounds in 20 minutes of play. Freshman Lilliana Petersen ended with eight points and six rebounds.

Bethany was led by freshman guard Amanda Tower who connected on five made threes to finish with 20 points.