Cloud County Women's Basketball Falls 71-56 to Butler in Home Finale
After building an eight-point lead with 6:16 left in the first half, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team saw visiting Butler Community College cut a 27-19 deficit down to one at 30-29 at halftime before getting outscored 42-26 in the second half to have sophomore day spoiled with a 71-56 defeat inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium in Concordia, Kansas on Saturday, March 2nd.
A second-straight home defeat and fourth-consecutive loss puts the T-Birds at 13-15 overall and 9-14 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the Grizzlies improve to 22-7 overall and 16-7 while taking a one-game lead over Barton for the number-three seed in the upcoming NJCAA Region VI Tournament.
Leading throughout the opening seven minutes of play, the T-Birds took advantage of Butler missing six of their first seven shots from the field to go up 7-2 before seeing BCCC come back to tie things at 9-9 at the halfway point of the first quarter. An offensive rebound and layup from Freddie Wallace for Butler put the Grizzlies out in front for the first time in the game at 12-11 before giving up a Josephine Igherighe fast break layup to allow CCCC to reclaim the lead at 13-12 briefly as Butler scored five of the final seven points of the quarter to carry a 17-15 lead into the second period.
Returning the favor with a 5-2 spurt of their own in the opening two minutes of the second, Cloud County took the lead back with a made Bailey Burns three before taking their largest lead of the game on a Destiny Smith triple. A near four-minute scoring drought for the T-Birds allowed Butler to go on a 5-0 run that was part of a larger 10-3 run to close out the first half as a Smith trey accounted for the only CCCC points over the final four minutes of the first half to see their eight-point lead cut to one.
Opening the third quarter with five straight points capped off by a Maimouna Sissoko three-point play, Cloud County quickly pushed their one-point lead out to six at 35-29 before seeing a J'unti Franklin triple with 6:47 left in the quarter get Butler back on the scoreboard to spark a Grizzly run. Following the BCCC three, Butler added another eight straight points to cap off an 11-0 run to go up 40-35 with just over four minutes remaining in the quarter as a scoring drought of nearly five minutes came over the T-Birds. Using free throws to keep within four at 40-36 and again at 42-38, Cloud County saw Butler put together another run to end a quarter with the final nine points of the period coming on the Grizzly end of the floor to turn things into a 13-point deficit at 51-38 heading to the fourth.
A 10-0 run by Butler after seeing things flip over to the fourth turned the 9-0 run into a 19-0 run by the Grizzlies to all but put the game out of reach as BCCC took their largest lead of the game at 61-38 with 7:32 remaining. Responding with a 9-2 run to cut into the Butler lead and try to build some momentum, CCCC saw Butler battle back with a 5-2 spurt to go back up 19 at 68-49 with just over three minutes remaining as the game never got closer than 14 down the stretch.
Turnovers were problematic on both ends of the court as Cloud County (27) and Butler (24) combined for 51 total turnovers in the game which led to 49 total points with the Grizzlies outscoring the T-Birds 34-15 in points off turnovers. Second-chance points were also a big advantage for BCCC as Butler outscored CCCC 25-5 in second-chance points after holding a 61-29 advantage in rebounds which included 31 offensive rebounds by the Grizzlies.
Leading all scorers in the contest was Sissoko with 20 points and three steals while being held to single-digit rebounds (six) for just the second time in the past 10 games. Smith added 12 points and had four rebounds while Burns scored 10 points and added a game-high five assists. Butler had four players reach double-figures in a balanced scoring effort as no Grizzly player scored more than 13 with Sariyah Williams and Randi Harding both netting 13 points.
What's Next?
The final regular season contest for Cloud County will come on Wednesday, March 7th when CCCC heads to Goodland, Kansas to take on the Northwest Kansas Technical College Mavericks in a 5:30 PM (MST) tip-off from Max Jones Fieldhouse. NWKT has been eliminated from postseason contention and will see their season conclude on Wednesday evening but are looking to end the year on a high note after winning 90-85 on the road at Pratt on Saturday to improve to 3-24 overall and 2-21 in the KJCCC. Wednesday's contest could factor into NJCAA Region VI Tournament seeding for the T-Birds as CCCC sits one game back of a tie for eighth and could potentially fall into a three-way tie with Cowley and Independence depending on the results of Wednesday's games.