CONCORDIA -- Thirteen threes from visiting Northwest Kansas Tech along with a 16-8 deficit in second-chance points would be the undoing for the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team in an 81-74 home defeat inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday.
Playing in their Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference opener to close out a season-opening two-game homestand, CCCC falls to 1-1 overall and 0-1 in KJCCC play while the Mavericks picked up a win in their season opener to move to 1-0 and 1-0 in Jayhawk Conference action.
Offensive woes plagued the T-Birds early on as CCCC would go the first 4:05 of the contest without a point before a Derin Akdeniz jump shot would finally get Cloud County on the board while trailing 3-2. The Mavericks would then use a 7-0 run to jump out to a 10-2 lead before seeing the T-Birds manage to battle back by scoring seven straight of their own capped off by a Jailynn Brooks triple with 2:24 left in the opening period to pull back within one at 10-9. Each team would then tally three points in the final stretch of the first quarter as Northwest Kansas Tech would hold a 13-12 lead after 10 minutes of action despite shooting struggles from both squads.
A Le'Yanna McGinnis layup and free throw would allow CCCC to tie the game up at 16-16 in the opening minute-plus of the second quarter as the T-Birds would force two ties before taking their first lead of the game at 20-19 on another McGinnis free throw. Things would then become back and forth as the lead would be traded on a couple of occasions before seeing the T-Birds get out to their largest lead of the game at 27-23 with 4:43 remaining in the first half. Cloud County's lead would be maintained over the next two minutes of action before the Mavericks would find a way to string together a 9-2 run to close out the opening half as CCCC would face a 38-35 halftime deficit despite shooting 60 percent from the floor in the second period.
Cloud County would continue to battle to open the third quarter and try to cut into the Maverick lead but would be unable to do so as Northwest Kansas Tech would have a response for each T-Bird bucket as the deficit would eventually grow to 52-43 before an Alyssa Castilleja layup would stop the bleeding momentarily. The charity stripe would then become of benefit for CCCC as McGinnis would score four straight points on back-to-back trips down the floor before seeing the Mavericks hit a triple to take their first double-digit lead of the game. Putting an emphasis on the defensive end would then come to the support of Cloud County as Northwest Kansas Tech would go the final 3:09 of the third quarter without a point which would allow the T-Birds to go on an 8-0 run and pull back within two at 61-59 with one quarter remaining.
In the fourth, CCCC would manage to get within a single point at 65-63 on a pair of McGinnis free throws, but the Mavericks would come up with yet another timely triple to go back up two possessions with 7:34 left in the game. Northwest Kansas Tech would then manage to slowly build their lead out to double-digits once more and hold a 77-66 lead with 3:42 remaining to force a T-Bird timeout as Cloud County would be unable to come up with enough stops on the defensive end while getting points on the offensive side of things to suffer their first defeat of the year.
For the contest, Cloud County would shoot just 34.6 percent (18-of-52) from the field and find the net on just three-of-13 (23.1 percent) of their attempts from deep while also facing a 47-43 deficit on the glass. Giving up 19 points off turnovers, the T-Birds would get 31 points from their bench and go the charity stripe 49 times compared to just 24 for Northwest Kansas Tech.
Shooting a career-high 21 free throws, McGinnis would connect on 15 attempts as part of a 27-point outing and grab nine rebounds to lead the T-Birds in points while Jeffcoat would add 15 points off the bench to go along with three steals. Jailynn Brooks would be the next closest CCCC player to double-figures with nine points as six other players for Cloud County would combine for the remaining 23 points. Northwest Kansas Tech would get a game-high 28 from Lauryn Vieira while Chloe Andrew scored 26 to put up a bulk of the Mavericks offensive total.
What's next?
Cloud County will hit the road for the first time this season with a trip west to Colby to take on the Trojans at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Colby was downed by a score of 86-56 on Wednesday night at Butler and sits at 1-1 overall and 0-1 in KJCCC action ahead of Saturday's tilt.
--cloudtbirds.com--