Cloud County Sports
David Wilson, Sports Information Director
COLBY — The Cloud County Community College women’s basketball team got one step closer to locking up a first-round home game for the Region VI Tournament following a dominating 67-31 road win over Colby Community College on Wednesday.
With the victory, Cloud County improved to 16-7 overall and 13-7 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference. One more conference win would guarantee the T-Birds a top-eight finish in the KJCCC and a home game in the first round of the Region VI Tournament.
The T-Birds had balanced scoring Wednesday as all 10 players who saw the court scored, led by forward Simone Walker scored a team-high 11 points off the bench, and a total of six players scored seven or more.
The guard trio of Chelcie Kizart, Kelsi Mueller and Kaley Broeckelman all chipped in nine points apiece. Sophomore forward Shannon Owens also added nine points Wednesday in her first start of the season in place of Erin Alexander, who came off the bench as she works her way back from an ankle injury suffered last Saturday against Neosho County.
After getting off to a sluggish start, holding a slim 13-7 lead through the first quarter, Cloud County took command of the game in the second quarter.
The T-Birds held Colby (3-21 overall, 1-19 KJCCC) scoreless for the first seven minutes of the second quarter and ending up outscoring the Lady Trojans 24-3 to take a comfortable 37-10 lead at the half.
Cloud County put the game on ice with a 21-9 scoring advantage in the third quarter to balloon its lead to 58-19.
“We had better intensity defensively in that second quarter, came up with some steals and got the game sped up a little bit,” said Cloud County head coach, Brett Erkenbrack. “We played well in stretches of the second quarter and third quarter.”
Cloud County, which was also without sophomore guard Jenna Clasen Wednesday, should be back to full strength Saturday when it hosts in Garden City Community College (8-16 overall, 6-14 KJCCC). Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
“Jenna and Erin still may not be 100 percent by Saturday, but it’ll be nice to have everyone in uniform,” Erkenbrack said. “It’ll be really nice to get Jenna back for our guard depth and to have another 3-point shooter on the floor. We’re getting closer to being 100 percent again and Saturday will be another big game for us.”