Big Fourth Quarter Pushes Cloud County Women Past Northwest Kansas Tech in NJCAA Region VI Tournament Opener

After playing a tightly contested 30 minutes of hoops, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team would shoot nearly 50 percent from the floor and go 15-for-16 from the charity stripe in the final quarter of action to outscore Northwest Kansas Tech 31-20 and pull away for an 84-68 home win in the opening round of the NCAA Region VI Tournament inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday, March 4th.

Advancing to Tuesday's quarterfinal round, the seventh-seeded T-Birds improve to 17-13 overall with the victory while earning a season series victory over the Mavericks who end their season with a 12-18 overall record.

Held to just three points throughout the opening five minutes of the contest, Cloud County would fall into an 8-3 hole early on as Northwest Tech would manage to force nine first-quarter turnovers which led to nine Maverick points in the opening period. The NWKT lead would grow to as many as eight with 4:07 left in the first quarter before seeing the T-Birds use a Te Araroa Sopoaga driving layup to spark a 12-1 run to end the half with a Sarah Lawless offensive rebound and put-back jumper in the final seconds putting CCCC up by a score of 15-12 after 10 minutes of action.

Turnovers would continue to be an issue for Cloud County in the second quarter as an aggressive Northwest Tech defense would continue to put pressure on the T-Birds and ensure that every offensive possession would be difficult. Despite the intensity and pressure, CCCC would manage to push their lead out to seven on two separate occasions before a Josephine Igherighe made three would put Cloud County up 25-17 with 5:21 left before halftime to take their largest lead of the first half. Following the made three, the T-Birds would endure a scoring drought of nearly four minutes which would allow the Mavericks to score the next seven points of the contest to pull back within one as the final 1:31 of the second quarter would be played within a margin of three points with the score finally settling at a 29-28 T-Bird lead.

After scoring the opening bucket of the second half on an Alize Ruiz steal and layup, Cloud County would see Northwest Tech battle to reclaim the lead at 32-31 and again at 34-33 as three lead changes would be had in the first two minutes of the third quarter. An open three for Sokhna Toure would allow the Mavericks to go up two possessions at 37-33 with 7:18 left in the quarter while holding a lead for each of the next two minutes of game time with shots beginning to fall. Foul trouble for NWKT would then begin to become an issue and allow the T-Birds to start taking advantage of the free-throw line to get back out in front and build a six-point lead with 2:16 left in the quarter. The Mavericks would follow by hitting their fifth made triple of the game to get back within three before giving up a late foul and a pair of Igherighe free throws to allow Cloud County to take a 53-48 lead into the fourth.

Things would appear to finally come together in the final period of action for CCCC as the T-Birds would get a made Sopoaga three in the opening 32 seconds to match their largest lead up that point at 56-48. The Mavericks would respond by scoring six of the next seven points to get back within three with 6:44 remaining but would give up a three-point play to Igherighe to allow Cloud County to go back up six at 60-54. Adding to their lead to grab their first double-digit advantage of the game with 4:58 remaining, Cloud County would maintain their lead before putting together a 12-0 run that would include seven points coming from the charity stripe to go up 78-57 with 2:10 remaining. The lead would eventually surpass the 20-point mark and get as high as 21 on a pair of Lilly Smith free throws to put the game out of reach as the Mavericks would outscore CCCC 9-4 in the final 1:05 to bring the final margin of victory for the T-Birds down to 16.

Shooting over 45 percent from the floor in three of the four quarters of action, CCCC would finish the game with a 46.4 percent field goal percentage while going 27-for-36 from the charity stripe to outscore the Mavericks by 18 from the free throw line. Cloud County would also hold a 44-36 advantage in rebounds and 38-30 advantage in points in the paint to offset a 33-13 advantage for NWKT in points off turnovers after forcing 31 T-Bird turnovers.

Career days from both Igherighe and Sopoaga would see each score a game-high 25 points while collectively hauling in nine rebounds (six for Sopoaga) and putting together a 15-of-19 performance from the charity stripe. Igherighe would finish 12-for-12 from the free throw line to match the second-best single-game performance in program history with four other players who have previously recorded a perfect day with 12 attempts. CCCC would also have both Smith and Ruiz in double-figures with 12 points apiece with Ruiz hauling in eight rebounds to now sit just five rebounds shy of the single-season record of 369 that was set by Shanele Stires in the 1991-92 season. Northwest Tech would be led by a team-best 20 from Toure who would also grab four rebounds and have three steals.

What's Next?
Quarterfinal round action of the 2023 NJCAA Region VI Tournament will see the top-four teams in the regular-season standings who had first-round byes host games on Tuesday, March 7th as CCCC will make the trip to Great Bend, Kansas to take on second-seeded Barton Community College at 5:30 PM. Cloud County is making its first appearance in the Region VI Tournament quarterfinal round since the 2018-19 season when the T-Birds would drop a 74-59 decision to top-seeded Seward County Community College in Park City, Kansas. The last meeting between Cloud County and Barton in the Region VI Tournament came on February 26th, 2020 when the Cougars would defeat the T-Birds 65-52.