INDEPENDENCE – Facing a one-point halftime deficit, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would be unable to withstand scoring droughts in both the third and fourth quarters as part of a 77-51 road loss at Independence Community College on Saturday.
Cloud County is now 9-14 overall and 4-9 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the host Pirates remain in third place in the KJCCC East Division while improving to 10-9 overall and 7-5 in conference action.
A slow start by the T-Birds would see ICC open a 21-12 lead after one quarter of action, but a strong second quarter by CCCC would see Cloud County outscore Independence 18-10 and cut a nine-point deficit down to one at the break. The offense for the T-Birds would struggle to produce points in the second half, with only 21 total points being scored by Cloud County in the final 20 minutes of action while the Pirates would score 24 in the third and 22 in the fourth to break the game open and pull away for the victory.
The offensive struggles for Cloud County would be seen from an 18-of-59 (30.5 percent) shooting percentage from the field as the T-Birds would only hit on three-of-13 (23.1 percent) of their threes. All three treys that the T-Birds would hit would come in the first half of the game as the Pirates would hit on five of their seven total triples in the second half as part of a 42.9 percent (27-for-63) outing from the field.
Sophomore Lydia Ostenson would be the lone player for CCCC in double-figures, scoring 11 points off the bench thanks to an eight-of-10 performance at the free throw line while Faith Martin would add nine points and four rebounds off the bench. Independence would be led by a game-high 23 points and 13 rebounds from Brittany Reeves while Maisa Marcal and Elizabeth Esan would both score 11 points.
What's next?
Cloud County will take the court just once next week, playing host to Neosho County Community College for a 6 p.m. contest on Wednesday. Neosho is 6-12 overall and 1-10 in the KJCCC ahead of a home game against Coffeyville on Saturday night.