NC Kansas News

Three-Point Shooting Proves To Be The Difference In Cloud County Women's Hoops 68-62 Loss

A 24-point difference in points from beyond the arc would be a problem for the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team as the T-Birds would fall by a final score of 68-62 to visiting Coffeyville Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday, February 18th.

 

For the first time this season, Cloud County has now fallen in four consecutive games to drop to 14-13 overall and 9-12 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Coffeyville snaps a four-game losing streak of their own after playing for the first time in a week to improve to 16-11 overall and 12-9 in the KJCCC.

 

Splitting the first four points of the contest, Cloud County would hold leads of 4-2 and 6-4 in the opening three minutes of the game before seeing Coffeyville go on a 10-0 run while holding the T-Birds scoreless for a span of nearly four minutes to jump out a 14-6 lead with 3:42 left in the opening quarter of play. Ending their scoring drought with a made Kayla Horton layup, Cloud County would see Coffeyville respond with the next four points of the game to take their first double-digit lead of the contest at 18-8 with 1:16 left in the opening period before getting a Sarah Lawless layup in the final 30 seconds of the quarter to trail by a score of 18-10 heading to the second.

 

Six-straight T-Bird points off three layups from three different players to begin the second quarter would see Cloud County cut the once 10-point deficit down to two at 18-16, but back-to-back Red Raven triples would quickly push the lead for Coffeyville back out to eight. Cloud County would continue to battle, getting back within five on two separate occasions before pulling within two at 29-27 with 1:18 left before halftime as CCCC would outscore Coffeyville 8-3 in the final two minutes of the second quarter to trail by only two at 32-30 at the end of the first half.

 

The Red Raven lead would remain just one possession throughout the opening two minutes of the third quarter as Cloud County would pull within one on three separate occasions while threatening to reclaim the lead just to be turned back each time before seeing the Coffeyville lead grow back out to five at 40-35. Coffeyville would then begin to take control of the tempo and grow their lead with a pair of free throws followed by a transition trey to go back up 10 at 49-39 to once again put some separation between themselves and the T-Birds. The deficit for Cloud County reach as high as 11 in the third quarter at 52-41 with 2:21 left in the period before getting cut to seven and eventually settling at nine at 54-45 to send things to the fourth.

 

Scoring four quick points off of two Te Aroroa Sopoaga free throws and an Alize Ruiz layup in the opening 70 seconds of the fourth quarter, Cloud County once again would find themselves trailing by just five at 54-59 with still plenty of game remaining until an 8-2 Coffeyville response would push the lead back out to double-digits. Another push from the T-Birds would see Sopoaga score six of the next eight points in the contest to get Cloud County back within six at 63-57, but see the Red Ravens answer back with five of the next seven points to lead 66-57 with 2:39 remaining. Down the stretch, Cloud County would see Sopoaga continue to carry the T-Bird offense scoring five of the final seven points in the game but ultimately see the deficit prove to be too much to overcome in the final minutes.

 

The biggest difference in the game would by and far come from the three-point line as Cloud County would go one-of-19 (5.3 percent) from beyond the arc while seeing Coffeyville hit nine-of-25 (36.0 percent) attempts to make up 45 percent of their made field goals (20-for-56, 35.7 percent). The Red Ravens would also hold a slight edge at the free throw line, going 19-of-24 (79.2 percent) compared to a 15-of-22 (68.2 percent) effort from the T-Birds who would hold a 13-7 advantage in second-chance points and 38-16 advantage in points in the paint.

 

Netting a game-high 24 to set a new career-high would be Sopoaga as the Wellington, New Zealand native would score 15 of her 24 points in the second half which included a 13-point fourth quarter. Sopoaga would also record six steals and four rebounds while Ruiz would notch her second-double-double of the week with 13 points and 11 rebounds to move within three rebounds of second on the single-season rebounding chart in program history. Coffeyville would get a pair of 16-point performances from Cheyenne Banks and Bailey Layman to lead a balanced scoring effort that would see nine different players score in the contest.

Original source can be found here.