Thunderbirds fall to Barton, 77-69

GREAT BEND — Hampered by foul trouble and cold shooting, the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds fell behind Barton Community College by double digits in the first half.
Cloud County would trail Barton by as many as 19 points in the second half.
A late run by the T-Birds fell short as the Cougars captured a 77-69 Jayhawk Conference win Wednesday night.
Cloud County had starters Te Araroa Sopoaga and Kay Hauata Phillips get into early foul trouble.
The T-Birds connected on just 7 of 34 field goal attempts for 21 percent in the first half in falling behind Barton 35-22.
Barton led 53-39 after three quarters of play, and upped that to 65-46 with just over five minutes to play in the game.
Cloud County closed the gap to seven points in the final minute, but ran out of time.
“It is a similar kind of pattern to what we have had in a lot of games this year. It seems like we have those prolonged periods of time in each game where we just really struggle a little bit. It was in the second quarter and part of the third quarter. And a lot of times it is tied to our foul trouble,” Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said.
Cloud County falls to 6-6 overall and 2-4 in conference play with the loss.
Barton, now 5-7 overall, improves to 2-4 in the Jayhawk.
“I think it is very misleading,” Erkenbrack said of Barton’s record. “They have lost some close games to some pretty good ball clubs. They are certainly a good team. Quite a bit better than their record indicates.”
Cloud County’s biggest lead of the game was at 2-0 10 seconds in.
A pair of free throws by Sopoaga gave the T-Birds a 6-5 advantage with 6:17 to play in the first quarter.
Consecutive threes by Brennan Kirchoff and Morgan Meyers put Barton on top to stay, 11-8.
The T-Birds trailed just 15-14 when the Cougars outscored them 7-1 over the final 1:18 of the first period to go up 22-15.
Cloud County would score just one point the first 4:50 of the second stanza and trailed 27-16 when Makayla Twyman connected on a three that made it 27-19.
The T-Birds made just 1 of 14 shots from the floor in the period.
Taking advantage of that cold shooting, the Cougars would extend their lead to 35-20.
A pair of free throws by Jessi Brummett left Cloud County trailing 35-22 at halftime.
The T-Birds would get as close as eight points, 37-29, in the third quarter on a jumper by Rori Cox.
Barton pushed the lead up to 16 points and was up 53-39 heading into the final 10 minutes.
The Cougars took their biggest lead of the game, 65-46, when Kirchoff was fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three free throws with 5:09 on the clock.
Cloud County rallied and made it a 69-61 game when Shakira Smith made a three-point shot with 1:45 remaining.
Two free throws by Meyers with 43 seconds left made it a 71-61 game.
Paula Puzule hit a three just three seconds later, and the T-Birds trailed 71-64.
The Cougars made six of eight free throws over the final 36 seconds to turn back the T-Birds.
“It was another one of those games that we needed to win. We have to start winning some of these games that seemingly are kind of fifty-fifty,” Erkenbrack said.
Sopoaga led Cloud County with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Smith came off the bench to hit four of five three-point attempts and scored 12 points.
Twyman added 10 points.
Barton had five players score in double figures led by Meyers with 22 points.
Kirchoff tossed in 15 points. Lili Shubert and Acorionna Lard scored 12 points each and Jenny Nkem Womsi chipped in 11 points.
The T-Birds are on the road again Saturday afternoon to play 14th-ranked Butler Community College.