CCCC uses big second half to down Saints, 73-68

Opening the Jayhawk Conference season at home, the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds erased a 13-point deficit to knock off the Seward County Community College Saints 73-68 Saturday afternoon in Bryant Gymnasium.
Cloud County, which won a fifth consecutive game to improve to 5-1 on the season, got off to a slow start once again, and trailed Seward County by as many as 13 points in the first half.
The T-Birds, down 37-27 at halftime, outscored the Saints 46-31 in the second half to battle back to hand them their first loss of the season.
“Tentative play on both ends. It is kind of like we start the game by dipping our toe in the water to see how it is going to be,” Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said of another slow start. “We have allowed our opposition to dictate the tempo of the game from the jump. And somehow we have got to learn how to come out and be the aggressor instead of the reactor.”
Connecting on one of its first field goal attempts to start the game, the T-Birds scored just two points in the first 4:12, and trailed 12-2.
Cloud County was 3 of 15 from the field for 20 percent in the first quarter and trailed the Saints, 22-11.
Seward County, now 3-1, extended the lead to as many as 13 points in the second period.
It was a 28-15 game when Cloud County got two free throws by Bailey Burns and four straight points by Maimouna Sissoko to close the gap to 30-23.
“I think what kind of turned it around for us a little bit is we played better defense. We stopped the flow a little bit better late in the first quarter and early in the second quarter to start to hold our own, and that made offense a lot easier,” Erkenbrack said.
Seward County pushed the lead back to 12 points and was still up double digits, 37-27, at halftime.
Josephine Igherighe scored the first two points of the second half, and the T-Birds trailed 37-29.
A free throw by Kayla Peoples gave the Saints a 38-29 advantage.
Cloud County, trailing 40-31, scored 10 points in 2:19.
A three-point basket by Burns gave the T-Birds their first lead at 41-40 with 5:48 to play in the third quarter.
“The three that Bailey hit out of the corner off the inbounds, that gave us the lead for the first time. That was a huge shot for us,” Erkenbrack said.
The T-Birds extended their lead to as many as five points, 46-41.
Seward County rallied to tie the game at 52-52 heading into the fourth quarter.
A steal and a layup by Ari Gordon 11 seconds into the final period gave the Saints the lead back at 54-52.
Baskets by Sissoko, Igherighe and Burns and a three-point play by Braylee Dale put Cloud County back on top, 61-54.
Seward County was able to pull back within three points, 61-58.
The T-Birds pushed the lead to six points, 70-64, with under a minute to play and held on for the win.
“I thought the second half we were the aggressor. We were playing faster, we were playing harder. We were communicating better and had better aggressiveness on the defensive end,” Erkenbrack said. “We really dominated the boards the second half, which was really critical, and we scored a lot.”
Sissoko scored 22 points and pulled down 19 rebounds for the T-Birds.
“Certainly Mai had a really big second half, had a really good game for us. That was good to see,” Erkenbrack said.
Burns finished with 19 points and six rebounds.
Dale added 13 points and five rebounds.
Jamia Carter led four Seward County players in double figures with 19 points. Peoples scored 12 points. Gordon and Alianna Colon chipped in 11 points each.
Cloud County is on the road to play 17th-ranked Coffeyville Community College in a conference game Tuesday night.