CONCORDIA – Seven players would reach double-figures for the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team as part of a 95-75 home victory over the Peru State College JV team inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Sunday, November 24th.
Finishing the week with two home wins in three games, the T-Birds are now 5-4 overall while the Bobcats fall to 4-5 after going 1-1 on the weekend.
"It was a good win for us as Peru State JV has already beaten Southeast Community College and Frank Phillips earlier on in the season and I can see how with their guard play and three-point shooters" said head coach Brett Erkenbrack in a post-game interview. "We spotted them nine points to start the game, but after the first four minutes of the game or so we played rather decent on the offensive end.
"Defensively, we still had issues as we fouled them too much and were caught flat-footed on too many occasions which led to a lot of free throws and didn't allow for any rhythm to the game.
"This was a ball-game that we needed to win and get on the right track as we enter conference play next week and we were able to accomplish that this afternoon."
Coming out flat on the offensive end, Cloud County would see Peru State JV open the game on a 9-0 run while holding CCCC scoreless for the opening 4:49 of the contest. Freshman Jacy Dalinghaus would finally get the T-Birds on the board at the 6:11 mark with a made three off a pass from LaKya Leslie as Cloud County would be forced to battle back by scoring 11 of the next 13 points to tie things at 11-11 with 3:28 remaining in the first quarter. The Bobcats would respond with a triple to reclaim the lead at 14-11 before seeing CCCC get another trey from Dalinghaus as Leslie would give Cloud County their first lead of the game at 16-14 with just over two minutes left in the opening period. CCCC would then use a Lydia Ostenson layup to go up 20-17, but see the Bobcats score the final four points of the quarter to take a slim 21-20 lead after 10 minutes of play.
The Peru State JV lead would grow to three at 23-20 to open the second quarter as Cloud County tie things up yet again with Alyssa Castilleja connecting from long distance as the two teams would go back and forth while trading the lead five times in the opening five minutes of the period. With the game tied at 30-30, Dalinghaus would put Cloud County back on top with a layup as the T-Birds would grow their lead to double-digits at 43-33 on a Jasmina Jones free throw with 1:58 left before halftime. The Bobcats would be held scoreless in the final 5:09 of the first half, allowing CCCC to score the final 14 points to go up by a score of 48-33 at halftime.
Things would continue to go in favor of Cloud County to open up the second half as the T-Birds would score six of the first eight points to go up 19 at 54-35 before pushing their lead to 20 on a Kelsie Kelly layup with 7:30 left in the third quarter. CCCC's largest lead of the contest would come with 2:07 remaining in the quarter as a Haven Hamilton rebound and putback would give Cloud County a 74-47 lead and well on their way to victory. Peru State would score six of the final nine points however to cut into the T-Bird lead, putting the score at 77-53 going to the fourth.
In the final 10 minutes of action, Cloud County would see the Peru State JV team score the opening six points of the quarter while enduring a stretch of 3:46 without a point before Hamilton would connect on another putback off a Dalinghaus missed layup to give CCCC a 79-59 lead. Five more points by the Bobcats would continue to cut into the T-Bird lead as Cloud County would see Peru State JV cut the deficit down to 83-68 before scoring seven of the next nine points to push their lead back to 20 with 2:21 remaining. The final two minutes of action would see the Bobcats get no closer than 17 as Cloud County would manage to push their lead back out to 20 where it would stand as the final margin of victory.
An efficient day shooting would see Cloud County connect on 48 percent (36-of-75) of their field goal attempts while also going six-for-15 (40 percent) from beyond the arc while adding 17 points at the free throw line. A commanding 52-33 advantage on the glass would lead to a 23-14 advantage in second chance points by the T-Birds as CCCC would also outscore the Bobcats 21-4 in points off turnovers.
The Balanced effort would be led by a team-best 17 points and 18 rebounds from Leslie as all five starters would work their way into double figures. Ostenson would be the next highest scoring T-Bird, putting up 16 points on six-of-nine shooting while Castilleja and Hamilton each scored 13. Other CCCC players to reach double-figures included Dalinghaus with 12, Jones with 11, and Kelly with 10.
What's next?
After playing three straight home games over the course of the past six days, Cloud County will return to action on the road on Wednesday when they open up Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play with a trip to Garden City to take on the Lady Broncbusters at 2 p.m. GCCC is 4-4 overall after splitting a pair of games this past weekend at the Trinidad State Classic with a 13 point loss coming against Otero Junior College before beating host Trinidad State 71-56 on Saturday.