CONCORDIA -- Building a 29-14 halftime lead, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would withstand a second-half rally from the visiting Garden City Community College Broncbusters to hang on for a 60-53 home win inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Monday.
The win, which moves Cloud County to 5-5 overall, sees the T-Birds improve to 4-5 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Garden City falls to 4-6 overall and 3-6 in KJCCC play.
Jumping out to a 6-2 lead in the opening minutes of the contest, the T-Birds would be able to shut down the Broncbusters on the offensive end of the floor as GCCC would hit on just two-of-17 shot attempts in the opening quarter to allow the T-Birds to get up by a score of 11-6 heading into the second. Back-to-back three's from Rori Cox off the bench would then allow CCCC to go up double-digits at 17-6 as Cloud County would manage to outscore Garden City by a mark of 12-8 in the final eight minutes of the first half as the T-Birds would go up by a score of 29-14 heading into the locker room at the half.
Cloud County's largest lead of the game would come in the opening minutes of the third quarter as a pair of Kennedy Becker free throws would put CCCC up 31-15 with 7:17 remaining in the quarter before seeing Garden City start to find some offensive rhythm. A 7-0 Broncbuster run would pull GCCC back with nine at 31-22, but a Le'Yanna McGinnis layup and free throw would put the T-Birds back up 12 at 34-22. The next two-plus minutes of action would see both Garden City and Cloud County match each other offensively on consecutive trips down the court, but it would be the Broncbusters who would end the quarter on an 8-3 run to pull with seven at 41-34 heading into the fourth.
In the fourth, Cloud County would manage to maintain their seven-point advantage throughout the opening minutes of the quarter as Garden City would be unable to find a defensive stop following a made basket. Cox would again find range from downtown with just under six minutes remaining as back-to-back treys for the second time in the contest would put CCCC back up double-digits at 51-41 with 5:15 left in the game. Down the stretch, Garden City would manage to pull within five at 56-51, but it would ultimately be the defense stepping up for Cloud County as the T-Birds would score four of the final six points in the game fend off the Broncbusters for their first win since February 10th.
CCCC would overcome 22 turnovers in the contest by shutting down Garden City offensively as the Broncbusters would shoot just 23.7 percent (14-of-59) from the field and score just nine second-chance points. Cloud County would finish the game 19-of-48 (39.6 percent) from the floor and four-of-13 (30.8 percent) from beyond the arc while outscoring GCCC 28-22 in the paint.
Netting a game-high and setting a new career-high would be Cox as the sophomore scored 22 points on seven-of-11 shooting while also adding seven rebounds off the bench. McGinnis would add 17 as the duo would account for nearly two-thirds of the T-Bird offense. Garden City would have just one scorer reach double digits as Donetria McGee would finish with a team-high 10.
What's next?
Cloud County will be back at home again on Wednesday as the T-Birds will take on Independence Community College at 6 p.m. The Pirates are 9-4 overall and 7-4 in the KJCCC, but have lost three of their last four contests with their lone win coming on February 22nd at home over Allen.
--cloudtbirds.com--