T-Birds pick up third straight win

GARDEN CITY — Continuing its climb in the Jayhawk Conference, the Cloud County Community College women’s basketball team held on to defeat Garden City Community College Saturday afternoon in Conestoga Arena.
Coming off a 71-58 loss to Butler Community College back on December 11, the Thunderbirds were 2-5 in the conference heading into a stretch of four consecutive games against teams above them in the standings.
Cloud County, with the win over Garden City on Saturday, has now won the first three of those games to improve to 9-7 overall and 5-5 in the conference.
“When we lost to Butler we were sitting there at 2-5 and we were a long way from anything. Three in a row gets us to 5-5. We are still kind of the middle of the pack but we are not that far from third,” Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said. “What each one of these victories does is make the next game just that much bigger. The biggest part of it is we are playing well, we are playing with some confidence and we are making some winning plays.”
The Thunderbirds will host Cowley County, 5-4 in conference play, on Wednesday night.
Cloud County and Garden City both got off to a slow start offensively, combining for just 10 points in the first six minutes of the game.
A three-point basket late in the first quarter gave the T-Birds an 11-10 lead.
Garden City, 10-4 overall and 5-4 in the Jayhawk Conference, scored the first four points of the second period, and led 14-11.
Puzule, who finished four of five from three-point range in scoring 13 points, knocked down three threes during a 17-3 run that put Cloud County on top to stay, 28-17.
“Paula Puzule continued to shoot the ball tremendously well,” Erkenbrack said.
Garden City, with Payton Hicks scoring with four seconds remaining in the first half, closed the gap to nine points, 30-21.
Cloud County pushed the lead to 13 points, 36-23, in the first 3:30 of the second half.
The T-Birds would go the final 6:41 of the third quarter without a field goal and connected on just three of six free throws.
Garden City scored 13 points during that stretch to get within six points, 41-35.
The Broncbusters made it a 41-37 game when Keyhana Turner scored 53 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Cloud County would respond.
Te Araroa Sopoaga had a pair of buckets as the T-Birds scored eight points in just 1:35 to extend the lead back to 11 points, 48-37.
“Te Araroa kind of took the game over there in the third and fourth quarters, getting to the basket, getting some buckets. I thought she was great the second half,” Erkenbrack said.
Justis Odom made two free throws for Garden City, but Sopoaga scored four quick points to make it 52-39 with 4:33 remaining in the game.
The Broncbusters mounted one final charge and whittled the deficit to just four points, 60-56, when Odom made one of two free throws with 38 seconds on the clock.
Cloud County turned the ball over, but Donetria McGee missed on a shot that would have made it a two-point game.
Rori Cox made two free throws with 13.6 seconds remaining to put the T-Birds up 62-56.
Two free throws by McGee eight seconds later again got the Broncbusters within four points.
Puzule went one of two from the line as Cloud County sealed the win.
Sopoaga led three T-Birds in double figures with 17 points and had 11 rebounds.
Cox scored 14 points and pulled down seven rebounds.
“Rori Cox had another really solid game. I thought she really played well late when we needed her to handle the ball a little bit more,” Erkenbrack said. “It took a lot of people to get it done on the road. That was huge for us; it was big for us.”
Kealani Neves paced Garden City with 17 points. McGee added 14.