Cloud County Women Hold Off Independence for 79-73 Home Victory

Jessi Brummett Made her Third Start of the Season, Scoring 12 Points for Cloud County in a 79-73 Win Over Independence on Wednesday, January 25th
Jessi Brummett Made her Third Start of the Season, Scoring 12 Points for Cloud County in a 79-73 Win Over Independence on Wednesday, January 25th

In a game that never saw either team lead by more than nine points to go along with 11 lead changes and seven ties, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would use a 10-2 run midway through the fourth quarter to turn a one-point deficit into a six-point lead and hang on for a 79-73 home victory over Independence Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday, January 25th.

Picking up a key Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference victory, the T-Bird victory finishes off a regular-season sweep of the Pirates as CCCC improves to 13-8 overall and 8-7 in the KJCCC. Independence has now lost three straight games and remains under .500 at 9-11 overall and 5-9 in conference play.

Scoring wouldn't be an issue for either squad in the opening 20 minutes of play as Cloud County would give up the first three points of the contest before going on an 8-0 run with Josephine Igherighe and Jessi Brummett both scoring four points each during the run. The five-point T-Bird lead would grow to seven following a pair of Alize Ruiz free throws and again on a made Brummett layup as the lead would stay intact up until the three-minute mark of the first quarter as the Pirates would put together a 9-2 run to end the period and trim a nine-point deficit down to two at 21-19.

Continuing their run into the second quarter, Independence would reclaim their first lead since the opening minute of the game by scoring the first four points of the quarter before seeing CCCC respond with a made Sarah Lawless jump shot and Lilly Smith three-point field goal to flip the score back in the direction of the T-Birds. CCCC would manage to hold their lead over the next three-plus minutes of action while outscoring Independence 8-2 to go back up three possessions at 34-27 at the mid-way point of the second quarter. Another run from ICC would see the Pirates respond by using a Sunisha Kartik triple to set off an 11-4 run that would completely erase the Cloud County lead and put the T-Birds in a 39-38 hole with 1:19 left before halftime. Following turnovers from both teams, CCCC would get a second-chance opportunity in the final seconds as Ruiz would finish off the first half with a layup to put Cloud County back up by a point at 40-39.

The lead would change hands once again at the start of the third quarter as Independence would connect on a shot from beyond the arc to go up 42-40 before seeing ties come at 42-42, 44-44, and 46-46. Another made triple by the Pirates would allow ICC to go back up again as the lead would remain in favor of Independence for much of the quarter with the Pirates going up by as many as six on a made three with 4:45 left in the quarter to hold a 56-50 lead. Following the made shot, Cloud County would score the next six points to tie things back up before giving up a three-point play to the Pirates to break a 56-56 deadlock. The final 57 seconds of the quarter would be all T-Birds however with CCCC scoring the final four points of the period to put things back where they started the quarter with a one-point lead in favor of the home team.

Continuing the back-and-forth action that had been seen throughout much of the night, both Cloud County and Independence would trade leads a total of four times in the opening two-plus minutes of action with a Ruiz layup putting CCCC back up by a 66-65 margin. Completing a three-point play following a foul on the layup, the T-Birds would manage to score eight of the next 10 points to put their advantage at five points with 4:08 remaining to be in a position to try and close out a home victory. Following a split of two free throws by the Pirates in their next possession, Cloud County would get a Maimouna Sissoko layup to go up by eight and never see their lead drop below four over the final 2:58 of the contest to hang on for their sixth victory of the year decided by 10 points or less.

Relying on attacking the paint, Cloud County would shoot 45.1 percent (32-of-71) from the floor despite just a one-of-seven (14.3 percent) outing from beyond the arc that would see Independence outscore the T-Birds by 18 points from the three-point line. Hitting 14-of-18 free throw attempts (77.8 percent), 56 of CCCC's 79 points would come inside the paint to go along with a 41-35 advantage in rebounds with 19 offensive rebounds leading to 23 second-chance points. The T-Birds would also limit their turnovers to just 12 while forcing 16 Pirate turnovers which allowed Cloud County to hold an 18-7 advantage in points off turnovers.

Five players for CCCC would reach double-figures including a team-best 16-point, 13-rebound performance from Sissoko. Four starters would join Sissoko in double figures with Ruiz (15), Igherighe (14), Brummett (12), and Te Araroa Sopoaga (10) all scoring at least 10 points with Smith scoring eight of CCCC's remaining 12 points. Independence would be led by a game-best 29 points from Valentina Ojeda who would also grab 10 rebounds in the contest.

What's Next?
Cloud County is off this upcoming Saturday as part of the conference bye due to a 13-team league which means that the T-Birds will be off until Wednesday, February 1st when they make their longest remaining trip of the season to Liberal, Kansas to take on Seward County Community College at 6 PM. The T-Birds defeated the Saints by a score of 62-55 in the first meeting between teams this season and will take on an SCCC squad that is currently 10-10 overall and 8-6 in the KJCCC. Sitting just half a game ahead of Cloud County in the KJCCC standings, Seward County will host Colby on Thursday evening at 6 PM before traveling to Dodge City on Saturday afternoon in their next two contests prior to taking on the T-Birds.