Mar 04, 2021

T-Bird women's basketball falls to Independence

Posted Mar 04, 2021 7:57 PM
Photo courtesy <a href="http://cloudtbirds.com">cloudtbirds.com</a>
Photo courtesy cloudtbirds.com

CONCORDIA – Able to avoid a third-quarter scoring drought while forcing 29 turnovers, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would see a 52-36 deficit in the rebounding column lead to a 64-54 home loss to Independence Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday.

The loss sees Cloud County fall to 5-6 overall and 4-6 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the Pirates move into sole possession of third in the KJCCC East Division while improving to 10-4 overall and 6-2 in league play.

An opening two minutes of scoreless basketball to begin the game would make way for a 10-2 Independence run as the Pirates would hit on a pair of three pointers early to go up eight with 6:03 left in the first quarter. Another triple for the Pirates would give Indy their largest lead of the quarter at 13-2 as the T-Birds would battle back with three of the next four points as the offensive flow for CCCC would begin to come together.

Trailing 16-8 to start the second 10 minutes of action, Cloud County would get four quick points to open the period with buckets from Rori Cox and Kennedy Becker to pull within four at 16-12. Independence would then respond with four points of their own to push their lead back out to eight as CCCC would manage to close the gap on several occasions but be unable to claim their first lead of the contest. Following a Pirate jumper with 1:41 left before halftime to make the score 28-19 in favor of Independence, Cloud County would make a run to close out the half as a 6-0 spurt sparked by Alyssa Castilleja would get the T-Birds within three. Independence would then finish out the half with a driving layup as things would settle at a 30-25 contest with two quarters in the books.

Similar to the first half storyline, Cloud County would once again make several attempts at cutting into the Independence lead to open the third quarter but would be turned away each time by the Pirates as Indy would match CCCC in offensive output. After seeing the Pirates use a pair of free throws to go up 37-29 with 5:26 remaining in the quarter, Cloud County would go on an 11-3 run over the next 3:37 of the game to tie things up at 40-40. Both teams would then trade buckets over the next 30 seconds of play as a two more Independence free throws would put the Pirates up 44-42 heading to the fourth.

Things would stay tight throughout the opening minutes of the fourth quarter as Cloud County would not allow Independence a chance to build their lead back out until a 7-0 run midway through the quarter would put the Pirates up 58-49 with just under three minutes remaining. Free throws would then become the name of the game as the two teams would combine to shoot nine free throws in the final 2:11 as the T-Birds would not be able to find enough offense to close the deficit.

The 29 forced turnovers for CCCC would lead to 24 points for Cloud County as the T-Birds would also outscore Independence 32-26 in the paint and 13-12 in second-chance points. Free throws would be one of the biggest differences in the game however as the Pirates would sink 22-of-35 (62.9 percent) attempts from the charity stripe while Cloud County would go 14-of-21 (66.7 percent) from the line.

It would be another career night for Cox as the sophomore would score a game-high 24 points and add nine rebounds to fall just one rebound short of a double-double. The remaining 32 points for the T-Birds would come courtesy of six different players as Becker would be the next leading scorer for CCCC with eight points.

What's next?
Cloud County will look to get back in the win column this Saturday with a road trip to Chanute, Kansas to take on the Neosho Panthers at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The T-Birds will be seeking just their second road victory of the year against a Neosho squad that is coming off a 120-56 road loss to Butler and is now 3-7 overall with a 2-6 mark in the KJCCC.  

--cloudtbirds.com--