Sunflower State News

CCCC Women Drop 77-49 Road Decision At Seward County

Playing for the first time in a week to start a stretch of three road games in the next 10 days, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would have plenty of opportunities but could not convert offensively as part of a 77-49 road defeat to Seward County Community College inside the Greenhouse in Liberal, Kansas on Wednesday, February 1st.

 

Dropping their fourth consecutive road game, Cloud County falls to 13-9 overall and is ns now 8-8 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Seward County earns a regular-season split of a home-and-home series with CCCC to improve to 12-11 overall and 10-7 in the KJCCC.

 

Limited to just three points through the opening six minutes of the game, Cloud County would fall into an early 10-3 deficit before ending an 8-0 Seward County run with a Maimouna Sissoko layup. The T-Birds would then be limited to just two free throws in the final seconds of the quarter as CCCC would make just two field goals in the opening 10 minutes and trail by a 14-7 deficit after one-quarter of action.

 

Scoring struggles would continue in the early stages of the second period as Seward County would score the first four points of the quarter and seven of the first nine to grow their lead to double-digits at 21-9. The lead for the Saints would grow to as many as 16 with 6:32 left in the second before a surge from the T-Birds would see six points from Cloud County start to cut into the SCCC lead. Free throw shooting for the Saints however would allow Seward County to keep their advantage from falling to single digits as all five points for SCCC over a span of three-plus minutes would come at the charity stripe. In addition to the free throw shooting, Seward County would manage to outscore Cloud County 10-4 over the final five minutes of the first half with the T-Birds trailing the Saints 37-21 at the half.

 

Trying to cut into the lead and make a run to start the second half, Cloud County would score six of the first eight points of the third quarter to get back within 12 at 39-27 before eventually getting within 11 at 42-31 mid-way through the quarter. Seward County would respond by scoring six of the next seven points to push their lead back to 16 as the T-Birds would be unable to get within single digits. Following a made Sarah Lawless triple with 3:02 left in the quarter to put CCCC down 48-35, SCCC would close out the quarter by scoring 11 of the final 13 points of the quarter to put the deficit at 22 points heading to the fourth.

 

A six-point surge to start the fourth give Cloud County some momentum in the opening 90 seconds of the final frame before seeing Seward County reclaim momentum by scoring five straight points. With the lead built up throughout the first 30 minutes of the game, the Saints would be able to match CCCC offensively to keep the T-Birds from making any kind of late run before closing out the game by scoring 13 of the final 15 points of the game to hand Cloud County their second-largest loss of the year.

 

Finishing with their second-lowest field goal percentage of the year, CCCC would shoot just 25.7 percent (18-of-70) from the floor while hitting just two of 13 (15.4 percent) three-point attempts and 11-of-19 (57.9 percent) of their free throw attempts. Seward would rely on 11 made threes and a 16-of-19 (84.2 percent) performance from the charity stripe while out rebounding CCCC 54-45 and holding a 19-14 advantage in points off turnovers.

 

Just one player for the T-Birds would reach double-figures on the night with Sissoko scoring a team-best 14 points and grabbing six rebounds while Te Araroa Sopoaga would score nine. The Saints would get a game-high 20 points from Halima Sallat as four starters for SCCC would finish in double-figures on the night.

 

What's Next?

Cloud County will host Pratt Community College for a 2 PM tip-off inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday, February 4th for their first of four home games in the month of February. The Beavers were off on Wednesday night and were last in action on Saturday, January 28th when they dropped an 84-56 road game to Butler Community College. After starting the season 10-5, Pratt has dropped six straight games with their last win coming on January 7th against Coffeyville. In the earlier meeting this season between Cloud County and Pratt, the Beavers would earn an 87-74 win in Pratt.

Original source can be found here.