Cloud County Women's Basketball to Open Season on Monday at Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa
A revamped roster and return to its typical November 1 start date awaits the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team as the T-Birds will begin their 2021-22 slate on Monday with a trip to Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa for their season-opening game.
Coming off a COVID-19 shortened 2020-21 season that saw all 22 games played in the spring 2021 semester, the T-Birds will look to get back towards the top half of the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference standings as part of a revamped KJCCC which features 12 Division I schools all playing in one division this season.
The one division format will take place for the first time since the 2017-18 season that saw CCCC finish with a 20-11 mark and an NJCAA Region VI Tournament Quarterfinal appearance as Cloud County will be tasked with a 24-game double-round robin conference schedule. With the change, the T-Birds will have just six non-conference games on the ledger with five of the six non-conference games taking place prior to their KJCCC opener on Wednesday, November 17th.
Just two of Cloud County's 14 players on the 2021-22 roster are returning from last year with guard Rori Cox and forward Kennedy Becker both back for their second season with the T-Birds. Cox was an Honorable Mention All-KJCCC East Division selection last year after starting the final 12 games of the season and leading the KJCCC in steals with 3.3 steals per game. The Brooklyn, New York native also averaged 11.7 points per game while reaching double-figures in 10 of her final 12 games. Becker also had an impact for Cloud County in 2020-21 as the Corning, Kansas native started 17 games and averaged 6.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per contest.
Amongst the mix of 12 newcomers for CCCC is a group of both guards and forwards as the T-Birds will look to build some depth while solidifying a starting lineup and rotation in the first month of the season. Guards Paula Puzule (London, England) and Te Araroa Sopoaga (Wellington, New Zealand) will provide some international experience along with sophomore transfer forward Kay Hauata Phillips (Sydney Australia). The T-Birds also have nine other newcomers hailing from four states (Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas) as well as another player from New Zealand that will look to make an impact.
Following their season-opening trek to Tonkawa, Oklahoma, CCCC will host Highland Community College in their home opener at 6 PM on Friday, November 5th before returning to the road for a 5:30 PM road game at McCook Community College on November 9th. The T-Birds will then have two more non-conference home games before their KJCCC opener at Northwest Kansas Tech which will be followed by a three-game homestand from November 20th through November 27th. The first half of the season will conclude on December 13th at home against Dodge City as Cloud County will then be off until a January 5th home game against Coffeyville. Of CCCC's 30 regular-season games this year, 16 will be played inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium, including 12 games against conference foes.
With the change to a one-division format, the top-12 teams in the KJCCC Division I standings at the end of the regular season will qualify for the 2022 NJCAA Region VI Tournament. Each of the top-four seeds will receive a first-round bye while the teams seeded fifth through eighth will host the remaining four teams to qualify on their home court. The winners of the first-round games will then travel to one of the four teams to receive a bye for second-round games, with the semifinals and finals taking place at the Tony's Pizza Events Center in Salina, Kansas.
All Cloud County home women's basketball games will be live-streamed this year, with fans able to watch at www.cloudtbirds.com/tbirdsportsnetwork. General admission tickets for all CCCC home basketball games are also on sale now, with fans able to purchase tickets to sit in any non-chair back seat inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium at www.cloudtbirds.com/tickets.