CONCORDIA – Holding a 32-point halftime lead, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would have little trouble with Neosho County Community College in a 91-55 home victory on sophomore day inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday.
Improving to 9-10 overall and 8-10 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference, the T-Birds finish off the year at home with a 7-4 overall record inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium. Neosho falls to 4-16 overall and 3-15 in the KJCCC with the loss.
Scoring nine of the first 11 points in the game, CCCC would never trail in the contest as the T-Birds would take their first double-digit lead of the game at the 3:28 mark of the first quarter on a Rori Cox triple. The lead would wind up growing to as many as 22 in the opening 10 minutes of action as a Le'Yanna McGinnis layup would make things a 28-8 game with 1:55 left in the first quarter before seeing the score settle at 32-10 at the end of the period.
Neosho would manage to open the second quarter by scoring seven of the first 10 points to cut into the Cloud County lead, but it would be of little use as the T-Birds would score eight of the next 11 to go back up by a score of 41-17 midway through the quarter. The final five minutes of the second quarter would never see the CCCC lead fall below 20 as a potent Cloud County offense would lead to a season-high 58 first-half points to hold a 58-26 lead at the half.
In the third quarter, the Panthers would manage to briefly cut into the T-Bird lead as CCCC would be held to just four points in the opening 4:49 of the second half. With the score sitting at 62-37, Cloud County would then hold Neosho scoreless for the next three-plus minutes while pushing their lead back out to 30 on an Alyssa Castilleja jumper with 2:22 remaining in the third. Eight of the final 12 points would then be scored by Neosho to end the quarter as Cloud County would take a 71-45 advantage into the fourth.
The fourth quarter would be more of the same for Cloud County as the T-Birds would score the first five points of the quarter while never seeing the Panthers get any closer than 28. CCCC would manage to take their largest lead of the game with 2:34 remaining in the game at 91-54 before seeing NCCC add a free throw in the final minutes to finish out the contest.
Holding Neosho to just a 19-of-72 (26.4 percent) shooting performance from the field, Cloud County would fare far better by going 33-of-76 (43.4 percent) while also hitting 21-of-24 (87.5 percent) from the charity stripe. The T-Birds would also hold a 51-43 advantage in rebounding and outscore the Panthers 54-18 in the paint and 38-12 in points off turnovers.
Four of Cloud County's five starters would reach double-figures including a game-high 25 points from McGinnis. Branda Boakye would add 16 points off the bench while Sydni Keys (15), Cox (12), and Isabella Vazquez (11) also hit double-digits. Neosho was led by a team-high 14 from Sarah Hunt on five-of-11 shooting.
What's next?
Having just completed their first season sweep of the season, the T-Birds will go for their second season sweep of a KJCCC East Division opponent on Monday night as CCCC will travel to Iola to take on Allen County Community College at 6 p.m. Allen was held to a season-low 27 points on Saturday evening as part of a 76-27 road loss at Butler to fall to 1-20 overall and 1-18 in the KJCCC.
--cloudtbirds.com--