Opening the regular season officially hosting Concordia University (Neb.) JV, the Cloud County Thunderbird women’s basketball team fell to the Bulldogs 85-82 on their home court.
Cloud scored first after a couple of missed field goals mixed with hard work on the offensive glass; a pair of free throws from Camiah Muldrow scored the first points of the season. Ball movement and court vision led to open shots for both teams, exchanging jump shots to an 8-8 game. Cloud started to build a lead and would end the quarter up 24-15. The T-Bird offense would get the lead up to 14 early in the second quarter, before both offenses would exchange looks from behind the arc. Concordia JV was able to get the lead down to 7 on a 3-pointer with 3:44 remaining and then again with 50 seconds remaining, but a jumper from Amanda Makela got the lead back to 9 to put the T-Birds up 42-33 entering halftime.
The Bulldogs started to chip away at the lead in the third quarter, going on a 9-4 run to make it a 46-42 Cloud lead before a T-Bird 3 from Camiah Muldrow broke the run. The Bulldogs continued to chip away and eventually tied the game with 3:36 remaining in the quarter, then took the lead with 2 minutes remaining, 57-55. Cloud retook the lead with 9 seconds left and entered the fourth quarter with a 59-57 lead. The fourth quarter would be a back-and-forth match between the two teams, with the Bulldogs maintaining momentum the majority of the quarter and taking a game-high lead of 5 with 2:45 remaining. A 3 with 30 seconds remaining would give Concordia a 6-point lead with too little time for Cloud to retaliate; a 3 from Muldrow with 21 seconds would give the final score of 85-82 Bulldogs.
Muldrow led in scoring with 20 points, while chipping in a team-high 8 assists with 5 rebounds. Makela had 18 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Leila Washington had 14 points and 9 rebounds. Shea Wurtz had 8 points, with a team-high 13 rebounds and 5 steals.
