T-Birds tumble 61-45 to Cougars

GREAT BEND — With its top two scorers held in check, the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds tumbled 61-45 to Barton Community College in a Jayhawk Conference road game on Wednesday night.
Averaging just over 31 points per game combined, sophomores Maimouna Sissoko (7 points) and Josephine Igherighe (6 points) were limited to 13 points as the Thunderbirds suffered a second loss to Barton.
"It severely diminishes our chances of winning," Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said of Sissoko and Igherighe scoring just 13 points. "The concerning thing for me is it is the third game in a row that we have been pretty much dominated inside. We have got to get something figured out there because that has been our strength all year."
Cloud County, dropping a third straight road game, is now 12-8 overall and 8-7 in Jayhawk Conference play.
The T-Birds led once in the game at 3-2.
Baskets by Quezia Bertoni and McKenna Vogl gave Barton a 6-3 lead.
Freshman Bailey Burns knocked down her second three-point shot of the game to pull Cloud County even at 6-6 with 5:18 to play in the third quarter.
The T-Birds then went scoreless for 4:08.
Barton, 16-5 overall and 11-4 in the conference, tossed in nine straight points to go on top, 15-6.
Burns, who led Cloud County with 13 points, made one of two free throws to get Cloud County within eight points, 15-7.
Igherighe came up with a steal and a layup early in the second quarter, and the T-Birds trailed 15-9.
A three by Tatum Boettjer and a bucket by Darby Smith upped Barton's lead to 20-9.
Destiny Smith knocked down a jumper and Cloud County trailed 20-11 with 6:38 to play in the first half.
The T-Birds would then go 4:21 without scoring and the Cougars used a 10-0 run to open up a 32-11 advantage.
"We couldn't score, we didn't score. We rushed a lot of shots, we took some shots that weren't really shots. And defensively, I didn't think we put forth the effort required to win a game against a quality team," Erkenbrack said.
Sissoko scored inside and Darcy Lierz hit a three to make it a 32-16 game.
Barton led 34-17 at halftime.
Cloud County fell behind by as many as 21 points in the third quarter.
The T-Birds closed the gap to 49-34 heading into the final period.
Trailing 53-37, Cloud County got a three by Smith, a free throw by Lierz and a layup by Smith, and trailed 53-43.
Barton then limited the T-Birds to just two points over the final 5:57 of the game and pulled away to the 16-point win.
Smith led Cloud County with 13 points. Burns added 11 points.
Sissoko pulled down 15 rebounds in the game.
Cloud County was just 15 of 67 from the field for 22 percent, including 8 of 27 from three-point range for 30 percent.
"We only made 15 field goals and eight of them were threes. We didn't get much around the basket," Erkenbrack said.
Vivian Onugha led four Barton players in double figures with 17 points.
Bertoni and Boettjer scored 12 points each for the Cougars and Vogl finished with 11.
Cloud County plays a second straight road game at Garden City Community College on Saturday.