Cloud County Women's Basketball Drops Season Opener at Northern Oklahoma Tonkawa, 83-67

A cold shooting performance in their 2023-24 season opener would spell trouble for the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team as part of an 83-67 road defeat to Northern Oklahoma Tonkawa in Tonkawa, Oklahoma on Saturday, November 4th.

The T-Birds see a season-opening loss come at the hands of the Mavericks for the second time in the past three seasons with both losses coming away from home while NOC-Tonkawa improves to 1-1 while bouncing back from a road defeat to Independence Community College on Wednesday evening.

Jumping out to a 5-0 lead, Cloud County would hold NOC scoreless for the first 2:28 of the contest before seeing the Mavericks score six straight and set up what would become a back-and-forth opening quarter. CCCC would reclaim the lead at 11-10 and manage to take a 21-20 lead at the end of the quarter before adding to their lead with three straight points in the opening minutes of the second quarter. An 11-0 Northern Oklahoma run would see Cloud County have a four-point lead turn into a seven-point deficit, but the T-Birds would be able to regroup before the opening half would end by scoring the final nine points of the second to reclaim the lead and take a 33-31 lead into the locker room.

Trading buckets with NOC to open the third quarter, Cloud County would see the Mavericks reclaim the lead on a made three to go up 36-35 before going on a 9-1 run that would turn things into a 44-36 lead for Tonkawa. CCCC would cut the eight-point deficit in half over the next few minutes of action to get back within four at 46-42, but the Mavericks would close out the quarter by outscoring Cloud County 7-5 and push their lead back to six at 53-47 heading to the fourth.

Three-point shooting by the Mavericks would start to take the game over in the fourth as a made triple by NOC would push things to a nine-point advantage with Tonkawa going on to score 13 of the first 15 points of the quarter to put Cloud County into a 66-49 hole. Having to try to dig out of a now 17-point hole with less than eight minutes to work with, CCCC would close the gap down to 13 at 71-58 and again at 73-60, but see Northern Oklahoma continue to pour in the scoring as part of a 30-point final period by the Mavericks as the T-Birds would be unable to keep the pace offensively.

For the game, Cloud County would connect on just 26-of-70 (37.1 percent) shots while going four-of-20 (20.0 percent) from beyond the arc while also struggling from the free throw line (11-for-21, 52.4 percent). Turnovers would also be an issue for CCCC as the T-Birds would commit 27 turnovers while recording just six steals on the defensive end and commit 20 personal fouls in a contest that would be called tightly throughout.

Individually, freshman Bailey Burns would lead CCCC with 15 points and five rebounds while Maimouna Sissoko would play 27 minutes and record a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double. Braylee Dale would also reach double-figure points with 13 points on six-of-11 shooting while also grabbing seven rebounds.

What's Next?
Cloud County will kick off their home portion of the 2023-24 schedule on Wednesday, November 8th when the T-Birds play host to the Concordia University Nebraska JV team at 6 PM. The game will be the first of five consecutive home games for CCCC which will take place over a 10-day period and be capped off with their Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference opener against Seward County on November 18th.