GREAT BEND – Twenty-four turnovers and a cold shooting afternoon would lead to a 70-59 road loss for the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team on the road at Barton Community College inside the Kirkman Center in Great Bend on Saturday.
Taking the floor for the first time in 10 days, the T-Birds drop to 4-3 overall and 3-3 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference with the loss while the Cougars picked up their fourth win to improve to 5-3 overall and 4-3 in the KJCCC.
Offensive struggles made their presence known from the opening tip as CCCC would muster just one point in the opening five-plus minutes of action to fall into a 10-1 hole with 4:47 remaining in the first quarter. A Sydni Keys triple would finally get Cloud County their first field goal of the game to kick start a 9-3 run as the sophomore would cap off the run with a transition layup get Cloud County within two at 13-11 with 2:51 left in the quarter to force a Barton timeout. In the final stretch of the opening period, both teams would manage to trade the final 12 points of the quarter as CCCC would trail 19-17 after 10 minutes of action.
Three-point shooting would be on point for the T-Birds in the opening minutes of the second as Alyssa Castilleja and Derin Akdeniz would both connect on triples to offset six points from Barton to keep the score within a single possession at 25-23. The Cougars would then manage to go on an 8-3 run to open up a 33-26 lead with 2:52 remaining in the first half as Cloud County would struggle to keep pace with BCCC. In the final minutes of the first half, Cloud County would manage to get buckets from Isabella Vazquez and Le'Yanna McGinnis but give up an open jumper and free throw to go into halftime trailing 36-30.
Cloud County would manage to trade buckets with Barton to open the third quarter, but then go ice cold from the field over the next four minutes of action to see the six-point Cougar lead reach double-digits after a 6-0 BCCC spurt. Kennedy Becker would connect on a three with 4:48 remaining in the period to get the deficit back under 10 at 46-37, but a 7-2 Barton run would see the Cougar lead grow to 58-41 to end the quarter.
A pair of free throws by the Cougars to open the fourth would allow Barton to take their largest lead of the game at 60-41 just 22 seconds into the period as the T-Birds would need to find some offense to try and get back into the game. Castilleja would step up to the challenge by connecting on her second triple of the game to spark to a 7-2 run by CCCC as the deficit would be cut to 64-51 with 7:02 left in the game. Despite the run, Cloud County would see Barton manage to end the potential rally as CCCC would get no closer than 11 in the final minute of the game.
The cold-shooting would see Cloud County go 22-of-61 (36.1 percent) from the floor and just six-of-19 (31.6 percent) from beyond the arc while going to the free-throw line just 13 total times. Barton would fare slightly better with a 39.7 percent (23-of-58) performance and five-of-15 (33.3 percent) three-point shooting day while connecting on 19 of 25 (76.0 percent) attempts from the charity stripe.
24 Cloud County turnovers would lead to 26 points for the Cougars as Barton would also hold a 41-33 advantage in rebounds over CCCC despite the T-Birds holding an 11-8 advantage in second-chance points. Fastbreak points would also play a role in the final margin of defeat for Cloud County as BCCC would outscore CCCC 18-2 in transition.
40 of Cloud County's 59 points would come from their starting five as McGinnis would lead the T-Birds with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Keys would lead all players in the game with 36 minutes of action while scoring nine points and adding three assists. Barton would have three players reach double-figures and be led by a game-high 16 points from sophomore Vanessa Oduah.
What's next?
Cloud County opens up the first of back-to-back three-game weeks on Monday, February 22nd when KJCCC East Division play begins with nationally-ranked Butler Community College. The Grizzlies are the lone remaining undefeated team in the Jayhawk Conference and sport an 8-0 record with a 7-0 mark in conference play following a 51-30 road win at Northwest Kansas Tech on Saturday.
--cloudtbirds.com--