Thunderbirds thump Beavers, 70-53

Three players combined for 57 points and 23 rebounds to lead the Cloud County Community College women’s basketball team to a 70-53 Jayhawk Conference win over Pratt Community College Saturday afternoon in Bryant Gymnasium.
Freshman guard Paula Puzule knocked down 6 of 10 three-point attempts on her way to scoring a team-high 22 points for Cloud County, and also grabbed seven rebounds.
Rori Cox, a freshman guard, tossed in 17 points and pulled down six rebounds. She was 8 of 14 from the field.
Te Araroa Sopoaga added 14 points to go with a team-high 10 rebounds for the Thunderbirds. The freshman guard hit 6 of 10 shots from the floor and both of her free throws and also had six assists.
“We got good production from those three and it was a really good win for us,” Cloud County coach Brett Erkenbrack said. “Pratt is down on numbers but that is a pretty good little team. They lost to Hutchinson last week by seven so they are dangerous and I was really happy about how we played most of the game.”
Cloud County halted a three-game conference losing streak with the win, and is now 6-5 overall and 2-3 in conference play.
“It was about as close to a must win situation that we could have. We really had to have it. We have got a tough stretch here the next eight or nine days, at Barton, at Butler and then Dodge City at home,” Erkenbrack said. “It was a big win for us and may have been our most complete performance, really, for 40 minutes.”
Pratt falls to 2-7 overall and 1-5 in the conference.
Cloud County trailed Pratt, 12-10, 6:10 into the third quarter.
The T-Birds would shut the Beavers out over the final 3:50 of the period and got baskets by Cox, Sopoaga and Puzule to go up 16-12.
Cloud County, with Puzule connecting on a pair of three-point shots, would double up Pratt 16-8 in the first five minutes of the second period to take a 32-20 advantage.
It was a 34-24 game when reserve guard Shakira Smith scored on a drive and then hit one of two free throws to put the T-Birds on top, 37-24.
Chariah Daniels made two free throws for Pratt, but Cloud County got a bucket by Olivia Collier-Tuipulotu to take a 39-26 lead into halftime.
The Beavers got as close as 11 points early in the second half.
Puzule hit a pair of threes and scored eight points during an 11-2 run that extended the T-Birds’ lead to 52-32.
Pratt responded with a quick 8-2 spurt to get back within 14 points, 54-40.
Sopoaga scored five points in 22 seconds and Cox made a floater in the lane as time expired in the third quarter to give Cloud County a 61-40 cushion.
Cox got a steal and a layup in the opening seconds of the final period to make it 63-40.
Cloud County would lead by as many as 25 points on its way to the win.
The T-Birds shot 47 percent (28 of 60) from the field and made 7 of 20 three-point attempts for 35 percent.
Daniels led three Pratt players in double figures with 16 points. She also had 11 rebounds.
Karolina Juresiute and Ruth Sodipe scored 12 points each.
The Beavers were just 17 of 57 from the floor for 30 percent and hit 3 of 24 shots from three-point range for 13 percent.
The T-Birds will play the first of two road games when they travel to Great Bend to take on Barton Community College on Wednesday night.
Barton is 4-7 overall and 1-4 in the conference.