T-Birds surge past Garden City, 55-44

A 10-0 run late in the fourth quarter gave the Cloud County Community College women's basketball team the spark it needed to pick up a 55-44 Jayhawk Conference win over the Garden City Community College Broncbusters Saturday afternoon in Bryant Gymnasium.
With both teams struggling to score points, the T-Birds were clinging to a 41-40 lead with under four minutes to play.
Cloud County then scored 10 unanswered points in less than three minutes to open up a 51-40 advantage.
Garden City could get no closer than eight points as the T-Birds posted a second straight win following semester break and improved to 11-5 overall and 6-4 in conference play.
“Against Garden City, typically it's a low possession game. They like to play a slow style, offensively. And they are a little bit difficult to play because they are also a good defensive team. So I was pretty sure it was going to be a low scoring game. I didn’t think it was going to be that low scoring,” Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said. “That little stretch there, we got a couple of offensive rebounds. Josie (Igherighe) got a big offensive rebound. We did a little bit better job executing in the halfcourt offensively.”
In a game in which both teams were struggling to score points, the T-Birds and Broncbusters went back and forth for the first three-plus quarters.
Garden City, 7-9 overall and 3-7 in the Jayhawk Conference, got out to an 8-2 lead.
Starting with a three-point shot by Lilly Smith, the T-Birds scored the next seven points, and led 9-8.
Garden City tossed in eight straight points to go back on top, 16-9.
Maimouna Sissoko and Te Araroa Sopoaga made two free throws each, and Cloud County trailed 16-13 going into the second quarter.
Two free throws by Dayshawna Carter upped the Broncbusters lead to 18-13 seven seconds into the second period.
Cloud County got a three-point shot by Sarah Lawless and baskets by Sissoko and Igherighe to reclaim the lead at 20-18.
The T-Birds would score just two points over the final 6:28 of the first half.
Carter, who led all scorers with 24 points, scored seven during that stretch, and Garden City was up 25-22 at the break.
Cloud County held the Broncbusters scoreless the first 4:18 of the second.
Four straight points by Alize Ruiz and a basket by Jessi Brummett gave the T-Birds the lead back at 28-25.
Ruiz paced Cloud County with 15 points.
Garden City scored six straight points, and led 31-28.
An 8-0 spurt put Cloud County back on top, 36-31.
Taya Davis knocked down two of four free throws over the final 55 seconds of the third quarter to get Garden City within three points, 36-33.
The two teams traded baskets over the first 6:30 of the final stanza.
It was a 41-40 Cloud County lead when a jumper by Ruiz started the decisive 10-0 run.
Sopoaga finished off the surge by the T-Birds with a steal and layup that made it a 51-40 game with just 33 seconds to play.
“The steal out there at midcourt by Te Araroa, that kind of sealed the deal,” Erkenbrack said.
Garden City would make three of four free throws in a span of three seconds to close the gap to 51-43, but there were just 15 seconds on the clock.
Ruiz and Sopoaga made two free throws each in the final 13 seconds.
“Sometimes this time of year, and in conference play, you have got to win some games that you don’t necessarily play very well. And that was pretty much it,” Erkenbrack said.
Sissoko scored 12 points and pulled down 15 rebounds for Cloud County.
Sopoaga also scored 12 points.
The T-Birds were just 18 of 54 from the field for 33 percent and made just 2 of 23 three-point attempts for 9 percent.
“I thought our shot selection for a lot of the ball game, especially the first three quarters, was very questionable at best. We took quick threes. We took deep threes. We took guarded threes. We had the wrong people shooting threes. We did not execute well offensively, really at all, other than that little stretch,” Erkenbrack said.
Carter was the only Garden City player to score more than eight points.
The Broncbusters were 14 of 51 from the floor for 28 percent and made just one of seven shots from three-point range.
Cloud County is back on the road to play at Cowley College on Wednesday.