CONCORDIA – With two opportunities to potentially put up a game-winning shot in the final seconds, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would be unable to find an opportunity to do so as part of a 56-55 home loss to Colby Community College inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday.
Dropping their second straight game, Cloud County falls to 6-6 overall and 1-2 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference. Colby is now 10-1 overall and evens their KJCCC record to 1-1 overall with the win.
"We are getting better and had some good days of practice leading up to tonight's game but we are still struggling to put together a full 40 minutes which hurt us tonight" said head coach Brett Erkenbrack in a post-game interview. "At times we did some good things and our defense played well but our offense struggled and a lot of that was due to the defense by Colby." "Colby made a couple of more plays than us and were able to get an offensive rebound in the final seconds that led to the game-winning free throws, and ultimately we did not play well enough to get a win tonight."
Following a pair of lead changes in the opening three minutes of play, Cloud County would take the lead on a Kelsie Kelly triple to break a 7-7 tie with 6:04 remaining in the opening quarter as the T-Birds would cap off a 7-3 run to go up 12-9 midway through the period. Colby would battle back to tie things up at 12-12, but see the T-Birds respond with two baskets while holding the Trojans scoreless for nearly three minutes as the quarter would play out to a 16-14 lead for CCCC.
Colby would tie things up 1:02 into the second quarter before seeing Cloud County reclaim the lead on a LaKya Leslie jumper as the T-Birds would score the next six points and force Colby to endure a scoring drought of 5:18 to grab a 22-15 lead. Six of the next eight points would be scored by Colby as the T-Bird lead would be cut down to three with just over two minutes remaining in the first half, but CCCC would respond with a Haven Hamilton jumper and Alyssa Castilleja triple to score five of the next seven points to go back up six at 29-23. The Trojans would end the half by adding a free throw in the final 1:24 to put the score at 29-24 in favor of Cloud County with the T-Birds holding the lead for a majority of the opening 20 minutes of action.
A 10-2 Cloud County run to start things off in the third would give the T-Birds their largest lead of the game at 36-28 with 6:18 remaining in the third quarter, but Colby would claw their way back by scoring eight points over the course of the next 2:28 to cut the lead down to four at 38-34. Down the stretch in the third, Cloud County would manage to outscore Colby 7-5 which would include a pair of Isabella Vazquez free throws in the final minute as CCCC would hold on to a 45-39 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Cloud County's six-point lead would quickly be diminished as the Trojans would score the first 13 points of the fourth quarter which included six points from the free throw line as the T-Birds would be held without a point for the first 5:07 of the quarter before Vazquez would get CCCC on the board to cut a 52-45 deficit down to five. Lydia Ostenson would connect on one of two free throws 20 seconds later and would be followed up by a Jacy Dalinghaus three that would pull Cloud County back within one before seeing Kelly give the T-Birds the lead on a pair of free throws with 2:55 remaining. Leslie would add a layup with 1:41 remaining to put Cloud County up 55-52, but an aggressive Colby offense would allow the Trojans to go to the free throw line and connect on a pair of free throws and close back within one at 55-54 with 1:04 remaining.
A missed shot by Cloud County on the offensive end would give the ball back to Colby where they would be fouled to be given a chance to reclaim the lead with 12 seconds remaining. Both free throws would be missed but an offensive rebound would keep the ball with the Trojans as another foul with 10 seconds remaining put Colby back at the line for two more free throws. The second opportunity at the charity stripe would pay off as both free throws would be on the mark to give the Trojans a one-point lead and the ball back to Cloud County.
In their final offensive possession, Cloud County would draw up a play and have Kelly drive to the hoop where she would be fouled before a shot could be attempted and not allow the freshman to go to the free throw line due to the foul being just Colby's fourth foul of the quarter. Attempting to inbound the ball with three seconds remaining under their own hoop, Cloud County would be unable to get the ball in to an open player as the ball would be touched and roll back towards the baseline as the Trojans would run out the clock to hang on for the single-point victory.
With neither team shooting the ball all that well in the game, the contest would ultimately come down to second chance points (15-8 in favor of Colby) and free throw shooting as the Trojans would go 17-for-23 (73.9 percent) from the line while Cloud County would only get 15 opportunities from the charity stripe while hitting 15 (73.3 percent). Colby would also hold a 44-39 advantage in rebounds as CCCC would force 19 Trojan turnovers leading to 13 points for the T-Birds.
Forty-six of Cloud County's 55 points would come from starters as three starters reached double-figures led by 14 points and seven rebounds from Leslie. Dalinghaus would add 13 and assist on four baskets while Kelly would score 10. Eight of the nine bench points for CCCC would come from Vazquez who would foul out in the final minutes after playing 22 minutes and grabbing seven rebounds.
What's Next?
The first of two more games prior to the holiday break will kick off on Saturday when the T-Birds hit the road to head to Dodge City, Kansas to take on the Conquistadors at 1 PM. DC3 dropped a 10-point road decision to Butler community College on Wednesday night and will enter Saturday's game with a 6-4 overall record and 1-2 mark in KJCCC play.