T-Birds tumble to Cougars, 52-41

Struggling to knock down shots, the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds were limited to their fewest points this season in a 52-41 Jayhawk Conference loss to Barton Community College Saturday afternoon in Bryant Gymnasium.
Cloud County, now 11-13 overall and 7-11 in conference play, connected on just 15 of 52 field goal attempts for 24 percent.
The T-Birds knocked down just 2 of 22 attempts from three-point range for nine percent and were held under 50 points for the second time in three games.
“I think Barton played some decent defense but we were just really stagnant and out of gear offensively,” Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said. “Not to make too many excuses, but it really hurts us not having Makayla Twyman. We got through it against Pratt the other night. We were really out of gear and we were standing around a lot.”
Twyman, a freshman point guard, missed a second consecutive game because of a medical issue.
After falling behind 3-0 to start the game, the T-Birds got a basket by Kennedy Becker with 2:10 gone by to make it 3-2.
Cloud County would then miss on eight consecutive shots.
Barton, 13-11 overall and 10-8 in the Jayhawk Conference, scored nine points during that stretch to go up 12-2.
A jumper by Te Araroa Sopoaga ended a Cloud County scoring drought of over four minutes and made it a 12-4 game.
The T-Birds would manage just two points over the final 3:14 of the first quarter and trailed 15-6. They were 3 of 18 from the floor in the period for 17 percent.
Miaya Ware scored inside in the opening minute of the second quarter, and it was a 15-8 game.
Scoring six straight points, the Cougars opened up a 21-8 advantage.
Olivia Collier-Tuipulotu scored for Cloud County.
The T-Birds would then go just one of nine from the floor and score just two points over the final 5:20 of the first half.
Barton managed just six points but led 27-12 at halftime.
“I felt like, at halftime, even though we only scored 12 points the first half we played good enough defense to be in the ball game and felt like if we could ever get and score three or four possessions in a row we would have a chance to win,” Erkenbrack said.
Two free throws by Sopoaga 31 seconds into the second half left Cloud County trailing 27-14.
With the T-Birds missing on its first seven field goal attempts in that third quarter, the Cougars got a three-point shot by Brennan Kirchoff and a bucket by Mikaela Hall to go up 32-14.
Cloud County was down 37-21 when Kardae Gales hit a three to make it 37-24.
The T-Birds had missed their first 15 three-point attempts before that make by Gales.
Kirchoff made two free throws for Barton, but a three-point play by Sopoaga left Cloud County trailing just 39-27 going into the fourth quarter.
Barton pushed the lead back to 16 points, 47-31, four minutes into the final period.
The T-Birds got no closer than 11 points after that.
“We missed some really nice opportunities to score to get it down to that two or three possession ball game and it seemed like every time we had an opportunity to get an easy basket or make a layup we missed it,” Erkenbrack said.
Rori Cox scored 12 points to lead Cloud County. She also had five rebounds and four assists.
Becker finished with eight points and eight rebounds.
Jenny Nkem Womsi led Barton with 17 points. Kirchoff added 14 points.
Cloud County will host Butler Community College on Wednesday night.