Newcomers lead T-Birds to romp over Coyotes

Led by a trio of newcomers, the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team cruised past the Kansas Wesleyan University junior varsity 92-54 in their home opener Tuesday night.
Kamryn Collins, a sophomore transfer, hit 8 of 11 field goal attempts and her only free throw in scoring a team high 19 points for Cloud County. She also had seven assists and four steals.
Sophomore Cassidy Haufler, also a transfer, recorded her second consecutive double-double to start the season, by scoring 16 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. She was six of nine from the floor and four of five from the free throw line.
Emmiley Hendrixson, a freshman guard, chipped in 13 points, eight assists and six steals.
Scout Frame, the leading returning scorer for the Thunderbirds, finished with 11 points and four rebounds.
Sophomore Destiny Pittman came off the bench to score 11 points and grab six rebounds.
“I saw a lot of good things. I thought we passed the ball real well. We ran well in the open floor, and at times I thought we were devastating in transition,”  Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said, “We got good production from a lot of people. We made a few little mistakes here and there that cost us, but for the most part it was another good effort by our team with some tremendous individual performances.”
Haufler scored nine of her points in the first four minutes of the game as Cloud County bolted to a 13-2 advantage.
Kansas Wesleyan would chip away at the early deficit, and close the gap to seven points, 21-14, on a pair of free throws by Lauren Brown.
A three-point shot by Hendrixson put the T-Birds up 24-14 heading into the second quarter.
Jordan Ott hit a three, and Kansas Wesleyan trailed just 24-17.
Cloud County (2-0) put together a 9-1 spurt to extend the lead to 33-18 with less than three minutes gone by in the second period.
The T-Birds would go on to lead by as many as 20 points, 46-26.
Baskets by Jaala Smylie and Evin Miller in the final 41 seconds of the first half left the Coyotes trailing 46-30.
A three-point shot by Hendrixson and a three-point play by Collins in the first 1:28 of the second half put Cloud County up 52-30.
Kansas Wesleyan would get as close as 19 points, 54-35, when Jacquelyn Mitchell connected on a three.
A layup by Collins, a basket by Faith Martin and then consecutive three by Collins made it a 64-35 Cloud County lead.
The T-Birds led 72-39 heading into the final 10 minutes of play, and rolled to the comfortable win.
Cloud County shot 47 percent (38 of 81) from the field and made 9 of 18 free throws.
The T-Birds had 27 assists on the 38 made field goals.
“This team is doing a better job than earlier in the season of keeping our heads up and passing the ball to the open person down the floor,” Erkenbrack said, “I think offensively we are a little farther ahead than teams we have had in recent memory.”
Jordan Ott led Kansas Wesleyan with 11 points.
The Coyotes were 15 of 58 from the field for 26 percent and 19 of 27 from the line for 70 percent.
Cloud County will play in the Hampton Inn Reiver Classic hosted by Iowa Western Community College on Friday and Saturday.
The T-Birds take on Jefferson College at 1 p.m. Friday and Western Nebraska Community College at 1 p.m. Saturday.
“Jefferson College is a talented ball club. We saw them a little bit in Lawrence at the showcase, so we'll certainly have to play well. They have a little bit of everything, kind of like us. They have some size, quickness, athletes and shooters,” Erkenbrack said, “Then with Western Nebraska on Saturday, it is a very good team. They are a top 25 caliber ball club, and I believe they went to the national tournament last year and have a lot of good players. It'll be a real good test of where we are at this point in the season.”