Cloud County Athletics
COFFEYVILLE - Tied at 63-63 with 2:06 remaining, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would end the game on a 10-0 run to defeat the Coffeyville Community College Red Ravens by a final score of 73-63 inside Nellis Hall in Coffeyville on Monday.
Snapping a three-game losing skid, the T-Birds pick up win number 12 on the year to improve to 12-15 overall and 8-13 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the Red Ravens drop their third-straight game to Cloud County to fall to 15-10 overall and 9-10 in the KJCCC.
Starting strong to open the game, Cloud County would score six of the first seven points as Te Araroa Sopoaga would account for four of the six CCCC points in the first 2:08 of the game. Coffeyville would be forced to rely on free-throw shooting early on as three of their first five points would come from the charity stripe before getting a jumper in the paint from sophomore Faith Simpson that would bring the Red Ravens within one at 8-7. The game would then become tied at 8-8 with 2:31 left in the opening quarter as Cloud County would score five of the next six points to go back up four at 13-9 before a Coffeyville three would bring the score back within one at 13-12 heading to the second.
Sopoaga's strong half would continue with a made triple to open the second period as the T-Birds would manage to hold a lead despite Coffeyville keeping within a possession for much of the first five minutes of the period. After seeing the Red Ravens tie things up at 19-19, CCCC would get a Rori Cox field goal followed by a Kardae Gales three start a 9-0 run that would give the T-Birds their largest lead of the first half at 28-19. Free throws would continue to be a strong point for Coffeyville however as two free throws for Simpson would start a 9-3 end to the half over the final 4:54 of the second quarter and put things at a 31-28 lead for Cloud County.
A defensive stop followed by a Cox jumper would put the Cloud County lead back out to five in the opening minute of the second half, but six straight points from Simpson would erase the deficit and give Coffeyville their first lead of the game at 34-33. Freshman Jessi Brummett would respond with a three to put the T-Birds back out in front as six of the next eight points would be scored by Cloud County to make it a two-possession game at 40-36. In the final four-plus minutes of the third quarter, Coffeyville would pull even once more at 40-40, but three straight free throws for Cloud County would be part of a stretch of 3:20 that saw only free throws accounting for scoring changes. It would take until the final minute of the third quarter for CCCC to start to push their lead out once more as a 43-42 game with 1:43 left in the quarter would be turned into a 48-42 Cloud County lead as Sopoaga and Cox would account for the final five points of the quarter.
Three-point shooting would highlight the fourth as the T-Birds and Red Ravens would go back-and-forth with the first five made shots of the quarter coming from beyond the arc. Hitting the final two threes for Cloud County would be freshman Paula Puzule to put CCCC up nine at 57-48 as the offenses saved their best performances for the final 10 minutes of action. Cloud County's lead would range from six to eight points for the next four-plus minutes of action as the T-Birds would be able to match Coffeyville's output until back-to-back treys would make it a two-point contest. The Red Ravens would cap off an 8-0 run with a pair of Simpson free throws to tie things at 63-63, but Sopoaga would connect on her second three of the game to put Cloud County back out in front.
Following an empty possession for Coffeyville, the Red Ravens would elect to begin fouling as neither team would be in the bonus, and time beginning to become a factor in the contest. Both teams would come up empty on their next possessions as the T-Birds would add to their lead with a Kay Hauata Phillips offensive rebound and put back with 57 seconds left that would extend the lead to five at 68-63. A missed three for Coffeyville would then put the Red Ravens in a must-foul situation as the T-Birds would have Phillips sink a pair of free throws and finish the game by hitting on five-of-six attempts in the final minute to ice the game away.
Finishing just two made three's shy of their season-high, Cloud County would hit on nine-of-24 (37.5 percent) of their attempts from deep as part of a 32.4 percent (23-of-71) shooting performance from the field. Matching their season-best free-throw percentage, the T-Birds would go 18-of-21 (85.7 percent) from the charity stripe to offset a 52-47 deficit in the rebounding column while outscoring Coffeyville 15-5 in points off turnovers.
Filling the stat sheet in just about every column would be Sopoaga who would officially finish with 16 points, seven rebounds, six assists, seven blocks, and five steals while playing 37 of the 40 minutes in the contest. Puzule would score 12 of her 14 points from beyond the arc while Cox (12), Phillips (10), and Becker (10) would also reach double-figures for CCCC. Coffeyville got a game-high 17 points from Simpson off the bench and had three players in double-figures on the night.
What's next?
Cloud County will take on a surging Garden City team that has won five of their last six on Wednesday at 6 p.m. inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium. The Broncbusters defeated Pratt 47-43 on Monday night but were defeated by the T-Birds 63-58 back on Jan. 8. CCCC has won five straight home games against Garden City, with the last home defeat coming on Feb. 14, 2015, to the Lady Broncbusters.