Cloud women fall short

Sophomore Maimouna Sissoko completed a three-point play 2:01 into the second half to give the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds a 35-29 lead on the Butler Community College Grizzlies.
Cloud County would not score again from the field until Sissoko hit a jumper with 6:48 remaining in the game.
Butler outscored the T-Birds 32-4 during that stretch on its way to a 71-56 Jayhawk Conference victory, Saturday afternoon in Bryant Gymnasium.
Cloud County missed six shots from the field and committed 12 turnovers over the span of more than 11 minutes with a field goal.
“It was really unfornuate that for about 24 minutes we played pretty good basketball,” Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said. “I really don’t have an explanation for it. We had so many unforced turnovers and missed a lot of shots. And some of those turnovers weren’t unforced.”
Cloud County jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead on Butler.
The Grizzlies outscored the T-Birds 15-8 over the final 7:17 of the first quarter to go up 17-15.
Cloud County opened the second period with a 12-2 run to take its biggest lead at 27-19.
The T-Birds scored just three points the final 6:13 of the first half.
Butler tossed in 10 points to pull within one, 30-29.
Josephine Igherighe scored the first two points of the second half.
Sissoko then completed the three-point play that gave the T-Birds the 35-29 cushion.
Starting with a three-point basket by J’unti Franklin, the Grizzlies scored 11 unanswered points to take the lead for good, 40-35.
Sissoko made one of two free throws to make it 40-36.
Following a basket by Butler, Bailey Burns went two of two from the line, and Cloud County again trailed by four, 42-38.
Butler tossed in the final nine points of the third quarter, and led 51-38.
The Grizzlies pumped in 10 points in the first three minutes of the final period to extend its lead to 61-38.
Darcy Lierz made one of two free throws and then Sissoko connected on a jump shot to end Cloud County’s field goal drought and make it 61-41.
The T-Birds could get no closer than 14 points over the final six-plus minutes.
Sissoko scored 20 points for Cloud County. Destiny Smith finished with 12 points and Burns added 10.
The T-Birds gave up 34 points off of 27 turnovers and 25 points off of 31 offensive rebounds by the Grizzlies.
“The difference in the game was giving up 31 offensive rebounds. We haven’t been dominated on the boards like that all year. And that eliminated any possibility of us winning the ball game,” Erkenbrack said.
Randi Harding and Sariyah Williams scored 13 points each for Butler. Franklin and Jada Hopson added 11 points each.
Cloud County finished up the regular season at Northwest Kansas Technical College on Wednesday night and plays on the road in the opening round of the Region VI playoffs on Saturday.