Saints turn back T-Birds, 78-64

Unable to mount one final charge, the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds suffered a 78-64 Jayhawk Conference loss to the streaking Seward County Community College Saints Saturday afternoon in Bryant Gymnasium.
Cloud County fell behind by 10 points in the first quarter but battled back to grab a 32-31 lead.
The T-Birds got down by six points, 45-39, in the second half before rallying to go up 50-48.
Seward County then outscored Cloud County 30-14 over the final 12:55 of the game to pick up the win.
“I thought we did some nice things throughout the course of the game. We just couldn’t hang on to it,” Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said. “Seward is a real matchup problem for us, as well as most people. They play all of those guards. They have a lot of quickness. They shoot a lot of threes. They spread the floor out and they hit some shots.”
The T-Birds have now dropped three straight games and are 10-11 overall and 6-9 conference play.
Seward County posted its sixth consecutive win, and its 10th in 11 games, to improve to 19-4 overall and 12-4 in the conference.
The Saints are in third place in the Jayhawk behind Independence Community College (14-2) and Hutchinson Community College (13-4).
Struggling to score in the early going, Cloud County would fall behind Seward County 14-4 in the first four minutes.
The T-Birds would cut that deficit in half, 20-15, heading into the second quarter.
Continuing to chip away at the Seward County lead, the T-Birds would go up 32-31 on a basket by Kay Hauata Phillips with 2:07 remaining in the first half.
The Saints would score the final five points of the second period and led 36-32.
Cloud County, playing without starting point guard Makayla Twyman the second half because of an undisclosed medical reason, got consecutive baskets by Kennedy Becker early in the second half to pull even at 36-36.
Becker came off the bench to lead the T-Birds with 17 points. She was 7 of 12 from the field and three of four from the free throw line and also had six rebounds.
Seward County used a 9-3 spurt to take a 45-39 advantage.
Rori Cox and Becker scored and Paula Puzule connected on a three-point shot to give Cloud County its first lead of the second half, 46-45.
A free throw by Sierra Lynch and a layup by Miyah Dubose put the Saints back on top, 48-46.
Layups by Phillips and Cox gave Cloud County the lead back at 50-48 with 2:55 to play in the third quarter.
Seward County got back-to-back three-point shots by D’Arrah Allen and Dubose and then two free throws by Dubose, and led 56-50.
Te Araroa Sopoaga made the first of two free throws, and missed on the second. Phillips grabbed the offensive rebound, scored and was fouled.
The free throw by Phillips pulled Cloud County within two points, 56-54.
A bucket by Sydney Wetlaufer and a free throw by Halima Salat put Seward County up 59-54 going into the final period.
The Saints got a basket by De’Shawnti Thomas, a three by Wetlaufer and two free throws by Lynch to open up a 66-54 lead.
“They put a lot of quickness out there on the floor and at times we just couldn’t put five people out there who could guard their five out on the floor,” Erkenbrack said. “And that puts a lot of pressure on us offensively to continue to score with them and we had some turnovers, some missed layups, and a couple of bad possessions, and we get in a hole and are scrambling to stay in it,” Erkenbrack said.
Cloud County would get as close as eight points, 68-60, when Becker scored with under four minutes to play.
Seward County scored the next four points to extend the lead back to 12 points on its way to the win.
“I was proud of the fact that after we got down early we did come back and kept fighting and had our chances. But sometimes there is a fine line between winning and losing and sometimes you have figure how to win these games.”
Phillips scored 15 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for Cloud County.
Cox added 13 points and seven rebounds.
Lynch, who was 14 of 16 from the free throw line, led all scorers with 25 points.
Salat scored 12 points for the Saints. Dubose had 11 points and Allen added 10.
Cloud County hosts Cowley College in a makeup game tonight.