CONCORDIA - Building a 22-point lead through the opening 38-plus minutes of play, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would hold off a late rally from visiting Highland Community College to earn a 79-68 win inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Friday.
Bouncing back from an 80-79 defeat on the road Monday night to Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa, the T-Birds improved to 1-1 overall on the year while the Scotties will lose for the first time this season to move to 1-1 overall.
Cloud County would waste no time jumping out to an early lead as turnovers would prove costly for Highland and lead to a 10-2 run to force an HCC timeout just 2:58 into the contest. Highland would wind up with 11 turnovers in the opening 10 minutes of play as the T-Birds would lead by as many as 13 at 16-3 following a Paula Puzule triple with 5:57 left in the opening quarter and would manage to outscore the Scotties 29-19 while putting up 22 shots in the period.
Six points for CCCC in the opening 92 seconds of the second quarter would quickly push the lead out to a 35-19 advantage for Cloud County as Shakira Smith would score four of the six points on a pair of layups before going on to hit a jumper to add to the lead a minute later. The T-Bird run to open the quarter would end following a free throw from freshman Makayla Twyman as Highland would respond with back-to-back three's to get back within 13 at 38-25 mid-way through the second. CCCC would respond by scoring the next seven points of the game with four free throws and another Puzule three to go up 20 for the first time in the contest at 45-25 as the lead would eventually settle at 52-36 heading into the locker room at halftime.
Trading the first eight points of the second half, Cloud County would maintain their 16-point lead in the opening minutes of the third quarter as the lead would not drop below 15 following a Highland triple with just over four minutes left in the frame. The T-Birds would then use a 10-2 run to take their largest lead of the game as Kennedy Becker would get a driving layup to make it 70-48 as CCCC would outscore the Scotties 13-7 in the final 3:43 of the quarter.
Offense would stall for Cloud County in the fourth as it would take until the 4:14 mark in the quarter for the T-Birds to score their first points on a pair of Becker free throws which would allow HCC to cut the lead down to 73-60. Highland would continue to cut into the CCCC lead and get within 12 on a layup with 3:05 left in the contest, but the T-Birds would respond with a Carolynn Washington layup and jumper on back-to-back possessions to get back up 79-63 with 2:28 remaining as the lead would be too large for Highland to overcome.
Ending the first half with a 42.5 percent (17-of-40) shooting performance, the T-Birds would wind up finishing the game by going 25-of-69 (36.2 percent) from the floor and five-of-19 (26.3 percent) from beyond the arc. CCCC would however go 24-for-32 (75.0 percent) from the charity stripe, shooting 17 first-half free throws before tacking on another 15 free throws in the second half.
Points off turnovers would wind up making the difference in the contest as Cloud County would score 32 points off 26 Scottie turnovers while seeing 21 turnovers of their own turn into 19 points for Highland. CCCC would also outscore HCC 15-9 in second-chance points and 34-26 in points in the paint.
Four of Cloud County's five starters would finish the game in double figures as the T-Birds would see five players score at least 10 points. Te Araroa Sopoaga finished with a team-high 13 points and 15 rebounds while adding four assists and five steals while Smith would add 12 points off the bench. Puzule and Rori Cox would both finish with 11 points while Becker added 10 on four-of-five shooting and a pair of free throws. Highland was led by a game-best 22 points from Emily Dogbaste as the Scotties would have four players of their own reach double-figures.
What's next?
Cloud County will hit the road to open their second week of the season with a 5:30 PM road contest at McCook Community College on Tuesday. McCook opened their season on Friday evening with a home game against Eastern Wyoming College and came away with a 63-56 win and will host Laramie County Community College on Saturday as the Indians will play their first five games of the season at home.