Cloud County Women Upset Cowley College in First Round of 2024 NJCAA Region VI Basketball Tournament

After having a three-point halftime lead disappear and turn into an eight-point deficit after three quarters of play, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team dug deep and erupted for a 31-point fourth quarter to outscore host Cowley Community College 31-17 in the final 10 minutes of action to pull 73-67 upset in the opening round of the 2024 NJCAA Region VI Women's Basketball Tournament hosted inside W.S. Scott Auditorium in Arkansas City, Kansas on Saturday, March 9th.

Avenging a 78-45 loss just 10 days earlier at the hands of Cowley, Cloud County earns their 15th win of the year to improve to 15-15 overall while winning the season series over the Tigers 2-1 to end Cowley's season at 16-15 overall.

Held to just one field goal in the opening four minutes of action, CCCC fell into a 6-2 hole before getting a Bailey Burns three with 5:35 left in the first quarter to get within one at 6-5 before tying the score at 8-8 on a Destiny Smith trey 45 seconds later. Taking the lead on a Maimouna Sissoko layup, the T-Birds traded four straight baskets back-and-forth with the Tigers to see things tied at 12-12 with Cowley getting a steal and layup in the final seconds of the period by Hattie Pyle to grab a 14-12 lead heading into the second.

The Tiger lead went from doubled from two to four in the opening 1:06 of the second period as a layup put Cowley out in front 16-12 before seeing a 6-0 surge from Cloud County come with a Sissoko three-point play and Smith triple to go up 18-16 with 7:55 left before halftime. With neither team being able to build a lead of more than four in the first 15 minutes of the game, the Tigers saw a 23-23 tie turn into a five-point CCCC lead with Cloud County scoring nine of the next 13 points with a trio of three-point field goals including two coming from Smith in a span of three T-Bird offensive possessions. With the score sitting at 32-27 in favor of Cloud County with 1:27 left before halftime, Cowley managed to get a layup with 28 seconds left to pull back within three before seeing Sissoko answer right back with a made field goal of her own as CCCC held a 34-29 lead at intermission.

Cloud County's largest lead of the game came just 1:12 into the second half as Josephine Igherighe turned a Cowley turnover into points with a made field goal before seeing an 8-2 run by Cowley cut the T-Bird lead down to one with 3:45 left in the third quarter. Ending the run with a pair of Igherighe free throws following a Ndack Mbengue foul, Cloud County saw their lead erased a minute later as Cowley turned a pair of CCCC turnovers into fast break points to go up 41-40 and force the T-Birds to use a timeout after trailing for the first time since the eight-minute mark of the second quarter. Out of the timeout, the Tigers continued their run by scoring an additional nine straight points to cap off a 13-0 run that put Cowley up 50-40 with 25 seconds left in the quarter as Cloud County got a late field goal in the paint from Smith to stop the run and get back within single digits going into the fourth quarter.

Free throws accounted for the first three T-Bird points of the fourth as CCCC managed to stay within striking distance with the deficit remaining at eight after the first 1:33 of the period. Getting a Sissoko field goal in before forcing a one-and-done offensive possession by Cowley, Cloud County cut a six-point deficit in half with a made Burns trey before seeing five quick points from Cowley push the lead right back out to eight at 58-50 with 6:09 left in the game. Answering a Tiger three with a three of their own, Cloud County used back-to-back triples from Smith and Burns to pull within two as long-range shooting continued to keep the T-Birds close as the CCCC got within one on a Sissoko three with 3:55 left in the contest. Cowley tried to match Cloud County from deep which led to an empty Tiger possession which allowed Igherighe to put the T-Birds back on top with a made field goal before seeing a Burns steal and layup give CCCC a 66-63 lead with just under three minutes remaining.

Back-to-back layups for Cowley allowed the Tigers to reclaim the lead with 1:58 remaining as Cloud County saw a scoring drought of 1:38 get snapped on Smith's seventh and final three of the game which put the T-Birds back on top by a score of 69-67 with 1:18 remaining. After a Cloud County timeout, Cowley went scoreless on their next offensive possession before forcing a T-Bird turnover to still have a chance to either tie or take the lead in the final 30 seconds of the game before seeing a missed game-tying layup lead to an Igherighe rebound. Forced to foul, the Tigers put Igherighe at the free-throw line where the Minneapolis, Minnesota native connected on both attempts to make things a two-possession game with 15 seconds left as Cowley was unable to score the rest of the way while allowing two more CCCC free throws to ice the game away with four seconds left as Cloud County came away with a six-point win.

Picking a prime opportunity to have their best three-point shooting performance of the year, the T-Birds shot 48.1 percent (13-of-27) from beyond the arc to set season-highs in both made threes and three-point field goal percentage as part of a 42.4 percent (25-of-59) shooting performance from the floor. Adding a 10-for-12 (83.3 percent) outing at the charity stripe, Cloud County overcame a 21-13 deficit in points off turnovers and 42-30 rebounding deficit by holding Cowley to a 34.2 percent (25-of-73) field goal percentage and three-for-15 (15.0 percent) effort from three.

Only four players scored for both teams in the game as zero total bench points were scored, with seven of the eight who reached the scoring column finishing in double-figures. Finishing tied for a game-high with 24 points was Smith after going eight-of-16 from the field and adding five rebounds while Burns scored 20 points and had four assists. Igherighe tallied 15 points and had six rebounds in 38 minutes of action for the T-Birds while Sissoko scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds to break the single-season rebound record set last season by Alize Ruiz as the sophomore now has 381 total rebounds. Cowley got 24-point performances from Anna Przyszlak and Pyle as both recorded double-doubles by grabbing 22 of the 42 Tiger rebounds.

What's Next?
The quarterfinal round of the 2024 NJCAA Region VI Women's Basketball Tournament will take place for Cloud County at top-seeded and number-one nationally ranked Hutchinson Community College with a 5:30 PM tip-off inside the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, Kansas on Tuesday, March 12th. The Blue Dragons capped off a perfect regular season on Wednesday night at Garden City to improve to 30-0 overall and won the regular season title by four games over second-place Dodge City Community College. In the two games this season between CCCC and HCC, Hutchinson won by scores of 77-50 and 93-63 and is currently the only NJCAA Division I women's basketball team out of 162 teams to remain undefeated this season.