The Cloud County Community College Men's basketball team participated in the Iowa Western Reiver Classic in Council Bluffs, IA over the weekend. Cloud took on two ranked opponents in the event. On Friday, the T-Birds lost to NJCAA D2 #8 Des Moines Area Community College. Saturday Cloud fell to tournament host, #23 Iowa Western. 

Cloud County 61 Des Moines Area CC 64

Buckets were hard to come by early on between the T-Birds and Bears. Cloud jumped out to an early 10-7 lead thanks to Aamahne Santos. Santos scored 5 of the Thunderbirds first 10 to spark the early lead. 

Demonte Ojinnaka got hot late in the first and scored 11 of his 18 to help Cloud take a 28-26 lead at the half. The T-Birds led 28-22 late in the half but the Bears went on a late run to cut the lead to two. 

Des Moines opened the 2nd half on a 9-4 run and jumped ahead 37-32. Duby Maduegbunam then scored five straight to tie it back up a 37. Cloud and Des Moines would battle back and forth throughout the second half until Des Moines went on a 7-0 run to open the game up late in the half. Cloud would not go away answering with six straight of their own to get the game within three at the two minute mark.

The T-Birds trailed by three with 14 seconds to play. Maduegbunam got a clean look on a three out of a timeout but just missed. Des Moines held on to win 64-61.  

Ojinnaka led the T-Birds with 18. He has scored 18 or more in four straight games. Aamahne Santos had 10. Cloud shot just 37% from the field on the night.

Cloud County 45 Iowa Western 81

The T-Birds ran into a buzzsaw with tournament host Iowa Western in the feature game on Saturday night. The 23rd ranked Reivers jumped out to an early lead and didn't look back.

Cloud trailed the Reivers 44-27 at half. Iowa Western continued their hot shooting into the second half and stretch the margin to 36. 

The Iowa Western defense held the T-Birds to just 26% shooting from the field. 

For the first time in five games somebody other than Demonte Ojinnaka led the Thunderbirds in scoring. Point guard Aamahne Santos led Cloud with 15 points. 

The Thunderbirds are now 3-3 and have an opportunity to get right on Tuesday night in Concordia as they host York JV.