CCCC topples Trojans, 75-55

Kicking off a final stretch during which they will play five of six games against teams below them in the Jayhawk Conference standings, the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds dominated in the second and third quarters on their way to a 75-55 victory over Colby Community College Wednesday night in Bryant Gymnasium.
Cloud County outscored Colby 45-20 in the second and third quarters combined to snap a four-game losing streak.
The T-Birds, now 13-11 overall and 9-10 in the Jayhawk Conference, have road games against Independence Community College, Cowley College and Northwest Kansas Technical College and home games against Pratt Community College and Butler Community College remaining on the schedule.
Of those teams, only Butler (13-5) is ahead of Cloud County in the conference.
''We are not guaranteed. We are in a pretty decent position to host a home game (in Region 6 playoffs). We have got to win as many as we can from now until the end," Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said. "We have five left, and none of them will be easy by any means. What makes it difficult is everybody is fighting for same thing, the same position. The road ahead of us is not as difficult as the road behind us, but we have to play better."
Colby, which has lost five straight games to fall to 6-17 overall and 2-16 in the conference, led Cloud County 12-6 midway through the first quarter.
"We didn't start the game very well from a defensive standpoint. We didn't start with the aggressiveness and intensity that I had hoped for," Erkenbrack said.
Cloud County used a 12-0 spurt to take a 20-12 lead, and would trail again.
Colby battled back to within one point, 21-20, heading into the second quarter.
Leading 23-22, the T-Birds put together a 12-2 run to go up 35-24 when Destiny Smith hit a three-point shot with 3:29 to play in the first half.
Colby scored the next four points to make it 35-28.
A basket late in the half gave Cloud County a 37-28 cushion.
Scoring the first four points of the second half, the T-Birds led 41-28.
The Trojans trimmed the deficit to 41-33.
A bucket by Maimouna Sissoko capped off a string of seven straight points that gave Cloud County a 48-33 advantage.
Sissoko led all scorers with 24 points.
Colby got as close as 12 points, 50-38.
The t-Birds outscored the Trojans 16-2 to open up a 66-40 lead going into the final 10 minutes.
"The middle part of the game we played well. We were dominant in most of the second quarter and definitely in the third quarter of the game and that was obviously the difference," Erkenbrack said.
Cloud County upped its lead to as many as 30 points, 73-43, early in the fourth quarter.
Josephine Igherighe scored 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Cloud County.
Smith finished with 12 points and Darcy Lierz had 10 points and five rebounds.
Sofia Lopez led Colby with 15 points.
Cloud County plays at Independence on Saturday afternoon.