Second-Half Surge Pushes Cloud County Women to 2-0 with 69-53 Win at Highland
After being held to just 22 points in the opening 20 minutes of play, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would find their offense in a big way with 47 second-half points to overcome an eight-point halftime deficit and earn a 69-53 road win at Highland Community College inside Ben Allen Field House in Highland, Kansas on Friday, November 4th.
Moving to 2-0 on the year, Cloud County remains unbeaten all-time against Highland who falls for the first time in the 2022-23 season to drop to 1-1 overall.
Points would be few and far between throughout the opening minutes of action as a Scottie triple would be the lone made field goal throughout the opening four-plus minutes of action. A pair of Makayla Twyman free throws would get CCCC on the board after being held scoreless for the first 3:09 of the game before getting a Te Araroa Sopoaga jump shot to tie the game at 4-4. Both teams would then trade transition layups before back-to-back Highland field goals would move HCC out in front by a 10-6 margin with just under two minutes left in the opening period. A response from Cloud County would come in the form of a Lilly Smith layup to bring the T-Birds back within two before an empty Scottie possession would allow CCCC to reclaim the lead on a Sarah Lawless triple for Cloud County's first lead of the game. Another Highland layup however with just seven seconds left in the opening 10 minutes of play would allow the Scotties to grab a 12-11 lead heading into the second.
Trading buckets back-and-forth, four lead changes would take place in the opening two-plus minutes of the second period before seeing things tied up at 16-16 on a Maimouna Sissoko free throw with 6:56 left in the first half. Highland would respond by going on an 8-0 run to grab a 24-16 lead before seeing the T-Birds the next six points of the game while holding HCC scoreless for a stretch of 2:37 to get back within two at 24-22. Following the run by Cloud County, Highland would manage to put together a run of their own as the final six points of the half would be scored by the Scotties and put things at a 30-22 margin heading into halftime.
Opening the third quarter with three Twyman free throws, CCCC would get back within five before seeing Highland take their largest lead of the game at 34-25 with 7:49 left in the quarter. Slowly chipping away at the Scottie lead, Cloud County would pull within two after a Sopoaga transition layup to force an HCC timeout as the T-Bird offense would begin to find its rhythm. Despite pulling within a bucket of Highland, Cloud County would see a pesky Scottie team manage to keep CCCC from pulling even as Cloud County would be answered for each offensive point scored. The deficit for the T-Birds however would never grow to more than five for the rest of the quarter with 6-2 spurt to end the period bringing CCCC within one at 46-45.
It wouldn't take long for Cloud County to find the lead in the fourth as the opening possession of the quarter would lead to a Scottie turnover before a Smith trey put the T-Birds out in front by a 48-46 margin. A layup from Twyman would then be followed by another Smith triple and Sissoko layup as CCCC would manage to score the first 16 points of the final frame to go up 61-46 with just over 6:11 left in the game. A Highland triple would get the Scotties on the board but be answered by a Sopoaga trey that would put the lead right back at 15 as the T-Birds would close out the game by taking a game-high 16-point margin of win.
After hitting just eight field goals in the first half, Cloud County would connect on nine field goals in the fourth quarter alone to finish the game 24-of-73 (32.9 percent) from the floor and seven-of-21 (33.3 percent) from three with five of the seven triples coming in the fourth. The T-Birds would also hold a commanding 59-39 advantage on the glass with 24 offensive rebounds leading to 19 second-chance points while also turning 20 Highland turnovers into an additional 23 points.
Four of CCCC's five starters would reach double-figures with Sissoko scoring a game-high 14 points and finishing one rebound shy of a double-double with nine rebounds. Alize Ruiz would score nine points but grab 17 rebounds and provide two steals and a block while Cloud County's other three starters (Smith, Twyman, and Sopoaga) would combine for 37 points. The Scotties would be led by a team-best 10 points from Joze Baker off the bench as their lone scorer in double-figures.
What's Next?
Cloud County continues non-conference play with a home game on Monday, November 10th against Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa to kick off a stretch that will see the T-Birds play four of their next five games at home. The Mavericks picked up their first win of the year on Friday night with a 57-54 neutral site win over Allen County Community College and will take on Cowley Community College on Saturday afternoon before their trip to Concordia on Monday.