Cloud pulls away in second half of 80-65 win over Lady Tigers

As has been the case in many games this season, the Cowley College women's basketball team played tough on the road for a half but were unable to sustain the same play over the final 20 minutes as they suffered an 80-65 loss at Cloud County on Saturday. The loss eliminated any chance Cowley had at hosting a first-round playoff game.

Cowley is now 14-15 overall and in ninth place with a record of 9-14 in the Jayhawk Conference. Cloud County (16-13) moves into a tie with Independence for seventh place with a conference record of 11-12.

On Saturday, super sophomore Baylee Fincher moved within eight points of breaking Theresa Cotton's points in a career by pouring in a game-high 28 points. However, Fincher made just 10-of-33 attempts from the floor and Cowley shot 28 percent as a team.

The Lady Tigers trailed by only one point (14-13) at the end of the first quarter and just 32-29 at halftime. But, Cloud County built its lead to 53-44 after three quarters of play.

Cowley would pull within 64-58 following a three-pointer by freshman Gracie Gilpin, but the T-Birds would out-score Cowley 16-7 the rest of the way.

Maimoina Sissoko came off the bench to lead Cloud with 21 points as the T-Birds' bench out-scored Cowley's bench 29-6.

Cowley has been out-scored by only 10 points in the first half of its last three road games, but have been out-scored by 69 points in the second half of those contests.

Cowley will look to finish the regular season with a victory when they host Pratt Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Pratt (11-17) has lost five games in a row and is 6-17 in the conference.

The Box score can be found at: https://kjccc.org/sports/wbkb/2022-23/boxscores/20230225_sk52.xml?view=boxscore