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Cloud County Women's Basketball Set to Open Season Against Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa

2024-25 Cloud County Women's Basketball
2024-25 Cloud County Women's Basketball

The Cloud County Community College women's basketball team will open its 2024-2025 season on Sunday, November 3 when they host Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa at 2 pm. This game will be the fourth meeting of the two teams in the last four seasons. The Mavericks have won two of the last three matchups, but Cloud County did take the last meeting in Concordia, 72-43, on November 7, 2022.

The T-Birds come into the 2024-2025 season with a new look featuring eleven new faces, including three transfers. The only returner for the T-Birds is 5-foot-9 wing Darcy Lierz of Powhattan, Kansas. Last season, Lierz started 23 games where she averaged 5.6 points per game. Lierz was fourth on the team in rebounds at 5.5 rebounds per game, and she snagged 57 steals on the season.

Bre Frazier, a 2023 graduate of Robbinsdale Cooper High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, sat out last year after originally signing to play at McLennan Community College. Frazier, a 5-foot-7 point guard, enrolled at Cloud County during the spring 2024 semester. At Robbinsdale Cooper, Frazier was awarded twice with all-conference awards as well as four varsity letters. She was the captain of the basketball team for two years and was selected to receive the school's Athena Award, given to exactly one senior per participating school who has distinguished herself in special individual athletic achievement or superior achievements in one or more sports.

The transfers to the team are TiAna Davis of Austin, Texas, Meilin Guo of Ganei Tikva, Israel, and Kiley Smich of Denver, Colorado. Davis played her freshman campaign at Shorter College in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Davis was an All-Region player after averaging 19.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 3.2 steals per game, while finishing at a 31.7 percent clip from behind the arc with 97 made three-pointers on the season. Guo, a 5-foot-10 small forward, started 16 games at Panola College in Texas last year. Guo averaged 4.9 points and 4.6 rebounds per game for the Fillies. Smich started off her collegiate career at Western Nebraska Community College. The 5-foot-8 guard averaged 15 minutes a game and posted an average of 2.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.

The T-Birds will look to replace top players Josephine Igherighe (Texas A&M International University), Sarah Lawless (Fort Hays State University), Maimouna Sissoko (Wichita State University), and Destiny Smith (Colorado State Pueblo) who comprised 63.4 percent of the team's scoring and more than 50 percent of the team's minutes from last season.

The freshmen joining the team are guards Nyah Chandler of Wichita, Kansas, DaNae Crosby of Little Elm, Texas, and Lauren Marron of Kansas City, Kansas, while frontcourt additions include KaMbili "Stix" Nelson of Memphis, Tennessee, Lilliana Petersen of Omaha, Nebraska, Talasia Thomas of Pine Mountain, Georgia, and Shea Wurtz of Clifton, Kansas.

Last season, Cloud County finished 15-16 overall and 10-14 in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play. The team averaged 67.7 points, 45.9 rebounds, and 15.2 free-throws per game.

Following the season opener against Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa, the T-Birds will remain at home to face Concordia University JV on Thursday, November 7 at 6 pm. Cloud County's only road non-conference game comes Saturday, November 9 when the T-Birds make a trip to Norfolk, Nebraska to face Northeast Community College at 1 pm. Cloud County will then return home to conclude its non-conference schedule against Kansas City Kansas Community College on Tuesday, November 12 at 6 pm, and Bethany College JV on Thursday, November 14 at 6 pm.

Cloud County opens Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play against the Seward County Saints at home on Wednesday, November 20 at 6 pm.