ARKANSAS CITY – Cutting a 12-point deficit at the end of the third quarter down to three with just over three minutes remaining in the game, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would be unable to pull even with host Cowley County Community College as the Tigers would pull away late for a 77-64 win inside of W.S. Scot Auditorium in Arkansas City on Wednesday.
Concluding the regular season with a 10-11 mark overall, Cloud County falls to 9-11 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College East Division. Cowley picked up their 14th win of the year to improve to 14-8 overall and 12-8 to secure a home NJCAA Region VI Tournament game.
Poor shooting in the first quarter would see neither team be able to put many points on the board as missed chances and turnovers would leave things at a 15-10 Cowley lead at the end of the opening period. The Tigers would then be able to open a double-digit lead in the second quarter by outscoring CCCC by a 21-14 margin to turn the five-point advantage into a 12-point halftime lead. Cloud County would hold their own out of the intermission break and keep the pace with Cowley throughout the quarter as both teams would manage to score 18 points in the stanza to make it 56-44 with 10 minutes left in the game. Defensive stops would finally start to be paired with successful offensive possessions for the T-Birds as Cloud County would get within three with a Le'Yanna McGinnis offensive rebound and put back to make it 62-59. The Tigers would respond however with a 9-0 run over the next 2:30 of the game to go back up double-digits at 71-59 as CCCC would never be able to recover.
After shooting just 32.1 percent (nine-of-28) from the field in the first half, Cloud County would finish the game by going 17-of-30 (56.7 percent) in the second half to shoot 44.8 percent (26-of-58) from the field. Free-throw shooting would be a problem for the T-Birds as CCCC would go just eight-of-18 (44.4 percent) from the charity stripe while attempting only two free throws in the second half. Cowley would hold a 35-32 advantage on the glass and outscore CCCC by a 29-18 margin in points off turnovers while also going getting 28 points from bench players.
Scoring a game-high 26 points in the contest would be sophomore Le'Yanna McGinnis as the Olathe, Kansas native would also have 13 rebounds and two assists. Sydni Keys would be the only other T-Bird to reach double-figures by scoring 13 points and three assists while playing all 40 minutes of the contest. Cowley would be led by a team-high 19 points from Kalyne Daniels as four Tigers reached double-figures in the game.
What's next?
The 2021 NJCAA Region VI Tournament will get underway on Monday as Cloud County will unofficially be the number nine seed (number five out of the KJCCC East) and is likely to face off against Garden City Community College from the KJCCC West. The official tournament bracket is slated to be released in the coming days with pairings and tip-off times for the opening round set to be announced.
--cloudtbirds.com--