CCCC women race past Northwest Tech

GOODLAND — All but one of the eight players in uniform scored in double figures as the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds halted a four-game losing skid by overwhelming Northwest Kansas Technical College, 117-72, in the final game of the regular season, on March 6.

Maimouna Sissoko led the scoring onslaught by Cloud County with 28 points. She also had eight rebounds.

Josephine Igherighe scored 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the T-Birds, who finished 10-14 in Jayhawk Conference play.

Destiny Smith and Cadence Nondorf, who had scored just eight points all season, tossed in 14 points each.

Darcy Lierz finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Sarah Lawless scored 11 points and pulled down 13 rebounds.

Bailey Burns added 10 points.

Cloud County connected on 43 of 84 field goal attempts for 51 points, in scoring its most points of the season.

"We played pretty well. Offensively, we were really good. The best we have been all year. We shot it well. We made some nice passes and got everybody involved," Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said. "Cadence Nondorf was great. We got good production off of our bench."

Cloud County finished the regular season at 14-15.

The T-Birds were 10-14 in conference play and tied for eighth place with Cowley College and Independence Community College.

Cowley College won the tiebreaker to earn the eight seed in the Region VI playoffs and will host ninth-seeded Independence Community College at 1 p.m. Saturday. 

Northwest Kansas Tech, which finished the season 3-25 overall and 2-22 in the conference, was tied with Cloud County at 9-9.

The T-Birds scored 12 straight points to go on top to stay, 21-9.

Cloud County was up 28-16 when a shot in the lane by Igherighe made it 30-16 going into the second quarter.

The T-Birds pushed the lead to 18 points early in the second period.

Northwest Kansas Tech trimmed the deficit back to 12 points, 38-26.

Putting together a 14-3 run, Cloud County went up 52-29.

Northwest Kansas Tech closed the gap to 56-38 at halftime.

Cloud County outscored the Mavericks 32-18 in the third quarter to extend the lead to 88-56.

The T-Birds led by as many as 47 points in the fourth quarter on its way to the win.

"It is hard to do that," Erkenbrack said of scoring 117 points in a game.

Northwest Kansas Tech had five players score in double figures, led by Alexzandria Thompson with 20 points.

Dionjane Jackson and Tyjhanae Penny scored 11 points apiece for the Mavericks.

Cerena Watson and Traysha Newsome added 10 points each.