Women’s Basketball Sweeps Season From Cloud County

CONCORDIA, Kan. –  A dominating third quarter helped lead Butler women's basketball to a 71-56 victory over the Cloud County T-Birds on Saturday at Arley Bryant Gymnasium.

Butler (22-7, 16-7 KJCCC) picked up its second straight win and swept the season series for a sixth straight season as Butler has now won 12 straight meetings over the T-Birds (13-15, 9-14).

Butler led 17-15 after the first quarter and trailed 30-29 heading into the locker room at halftime. A big third quarter propelled the Grizzlies to victory as they outscored Cloud 22-8 to take a 51-38 lead into the final quarter. The Grizzlies went on a 9-0 run to close out the third and carried it over to the fourth, building a 19-0 run that put them ahead 61-38 with 7:32 to play.

Both teams had issues holding on to the ball as Cloud turned it over 27 times and Butler 24. The Grizzlies outscored the T-Birds 44-22 in the paint and out-rebounded them 60-30. Butler shot a paltry 12-28 (42.9%) from the charity stripe.

Randi Harding led Butler's scorers with 13 points and six rebounds. Freddie Wallace scored seven and pulled down 11 rebounds. J'unti Franklin had 11 points, six rebounds and four assists. Off the bench, Jada Hopson had an impressive 11-point, 12 rebound double-double.

Cloud's Maimouna Sissoko led all scorers with 20 points.

The Grizzlies return to action on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. as they close the season out with the Cowley Tigers coming to town.