Colby snaps T-Birds’ winning streak

COLBY — After picking up three wins against teams ahead of them in the Jayhawk Conference, the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds had that run halted with a 69-60 loss to a Colby team that is behind them in the standings.
Cloud County had posted wins over Dodge City Community College, Coffeyville Community College and Garden City Community College to climb to 5-5 in the conference.
Colby, which had lost three straight going into the matchup, outscored the T-Birds 9-3 over the final 1:35 of the game to secure the victory, and improve to 6-10 overall and 3-8 in the Jayhawk.
“I give Colby a lot of credit. They just out-hustled us all night long and they played harder than we did,” Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said. “For whatever reason, we were complacent. We didn’t come out with the same kind of fire and intensity we have the last month and I couldn’t talk them into playing. So it really is a disappointing loss for us and it hurts.”
Cloud County, now 9-8 overall, is back in action tonight at home against Northwest Kansas Technical College.
The T-Birds and the Trojans were locked up in a tight battle throughout.
Neither team led by more than four points until late in the third quarter.
Colby led 29-28 at halftime.
Trailing 32-30 early in the third quarter, the T-Birds used a quick 7-3 spurt to go up 37-35 when Kennedy Becker scored inside with 6:34 to play in the third period.
Colby responded with a 12-4 run to go on top to stay, 47-41.
The Trojans were up 50-45 heading into the final period.
Oluwabukola Akinsola scored the first two points of the fourth quarter to give Colby a 52-40 advantage.
A three-point basket by Makayla Twyman pulled Cloud County within four points.
It was a 54-50 game when Akinsola, who came off the bench to lead the Trojans with 19 points, scored four in 19 seconds to make it a 58-50 game.
Cloud County trailed 60-53 when Kay Hauata Phillips scored inside and then hit two free throws to close the gap to 60-57 with just over three minutes remaining.
The T-Birds forced a pair of Colby turnovers but were unable to capitalize.
Kiarra Henderson made one of two free throws, and the Trojans led 61-57 with 1:35 on the clock.
Phillips was unable to connect on a short shot.
Cloud County was able to get the ball back, but committed a turnover.
“We couldn’t get out of our own way,” Erkenbrack said. “We didn’t elevate our play when we needed to. I kept thinking we were going to make a little run but we never really did. We had opportunities and we didn’t capitalize.”
Akinsola scored on a drive to make it a 63-57 Colby lead.
Twyman was unable to hit a three-point attempt.
The Trojans would make six of eight free throws over the final 32 seconds to secure the win.
Phillips, who was limited to 23 minutes because of foul trouble, led Cloud County with 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
Te Araroa Sopoaga finished with 13 points and five rebounds for the T-Birds.
The T-Birds shot just 36 percent (23 of 64) from the field, turned the ball over 22 times and gave up 16 offensive rebounds to the Trojans.
“I can’t say we had anybody play particularly well. Not that everybody played bad, but we didn’t have anybody really have a good game,” Erkenbrack said.
Henderson scored 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for Colby.
De’Jah Vigilante added 10 points for the Trojans.
The game was tied five times in the first quarter, and Cloud County scored the final four points to take a 17-13 lead into the second.
There were seven lead changes in that second stanza.
The T-Birds were up 28-26 when the Trojans scored three points in the final 29 seconds to go back on top 29-28.
Cloud County reclaimed the lead in the third quarter before the Trojans took control.
After hosting Northwest Tech, the T-Birds will be on the road at Hutchinson Community College on Wednesday night.