ARKANSAS CITY, Kansas — The Cloud County Community College men's basketball team couldn't overcome a big first-half effort by Cowley College, falling 91-72 on the road Wednesday to the Tigers.

With the loss, Cloud County (6-21 overall, 4-20 KJCCC) will have to settle for a season split against Cowley (18-10 overall, 15-9 KJCCC) after winning the matchup in Concordia, back on Jan.6.

Cowley methodically build a 10-point lead by the first-half media timeout, going up 31-21, and would increase its advantage to 52-33 at the break behind a 56 percent shooting performance from the field, including a 43 percent clip from behind the 3-point line.

The Tigers then put the game out of reach early in the second half as they went on a 15-4 run through the first 3:36 of the second half to bump the lead to 67-37.

Cloud County was able to bounce back and play even with the Tigers in a second half with a concerted effort to get to the rim.

The T-Birds were 16-of-19 (84 percent) from the free-throw line in the second half and 23-of-27 (85 percent) for the game.

Redshirt freshman guard Alvin Thompson led all Cloud County players with 17 points and six rebounds.

Freshman JaVary Christmas was close behind with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting and sophomore Shawn Lee chipped in 12 points (10-for-10 FTs) off the bench.

Cloud County will be back in action on Saturday when it plays its regular season home finale against Allen County Community College.

The T-Birds will be looking for another season series split with the Red Devils after falling 80-64 to Allen County back on Jan. 10.

Tip-off on Saturday is scheduled for 8 p.m.