Women's Basketball | 11/9/2024 9:02:00 PM

Box Score Playing away from home for the first time this season, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team raced out to an early double-digit lead and was able to hold off the Northeast Community College Hawks for a 65-56 win in Norfolk, Nebraska on Saturday, November 9.

The game was low scoring through the first four minutes before the T-Birds put together an 11-2 run over a span of two minutes and thirty three seconds to grab its first double-digit lead at 16-6 with 3:01 remaining in the first quarter. Freshman Lilliana Petersen and sophomore transfer TiAna Davis each had six points in the opening frame, while Cloud County limited Northeast's offense to just 1-of-13 (7.7 percent) shooting from the field in the first ten minutes of play. Cloud County held an 18-7 advantage entering the second quarter.

Defensively, the T-Birds held the Hawks to just four made field-goals and 0-of-6 shooting from behind the arc in the first half, while forcing 13 turnovers and outrebounding Northeast by a 22-15 margin.

Freshman guard Bre Frazier took over midway through the second quarter. Frazier scored 10 points during a 14-5 run for the T-Birds, enabling them to extend their lead out to 19 points at 34-15 with 2:15 to play in the first half. Frazier added a layup in the closing minutes, while sophomore transfer Meilin Guo chipped in four points in the period, giving Cloud County a 38-17 lead at the halftime break.

A jump shot by Petersen to open the second half gave Cloud County its largest lead of the day at 40-17.

Northeast was finally able to get some shots to fall in the third quarter, with all five starters contributing to the scoring output, but the Hawks would get no closer than 16 points in the third stanza. The T-Birds led 50-32 at the end of three quarters of play.

The Hawks continued to come on strong and attempted to make things interesting down the stretch. Northeast scored the first five points of the fourth quarter, and later brought the game back to single digits at 56-45 on a layup by freshman guard Aaliyah Jones with 3:43 to play. Jones finished the night with a game-high 25 points.

A three-pointer by Davis soon after pumped Cloud County's lead back up to double-digits. Davis, Petersen and DaNae Crosby then knocked down critical free-throws in the final minutes, allowing the T-Birds to walk out with a 65-56 victory, handing Northeast its first loss of the season.

Petersen had 16 points to lead Cloud County. The 6-foot-1 freshman from Omaha, Nebraska connected on 5-of-9 (55.6 percent) from the field and finished 6-of-6 from the foul line.

As a team, Cloud County was 19-of-24 (79.2 percent) from the free-throw line.

Frazier ended the night with 14 points, four steals and four rebounds. Davis joined Frazier and Petersen in double-figures with 12 points.

Cloud County outscored Northeast 13-5 in points off the bench, led by Guo with six points and four rebounds.

The T-Birds defense also held the Hawks 34 points below their early season scoring average on just 27.9 percent shooting from the floor.

Cloud County (3-0) continues non-conference play on Tuesday, November 12 when they host Kansas City Kansas Community College for a 6 pm tip from Arley Bryant Gymnasium. The Blue Devils are currently 4-0 on the year, with early season wins over the University of Saint Mary, Missouri Valley College, Haskell University and Metropolitan Community College.