CONCORDIA, Kan. – On a night where the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would shoot just 8.7 percent from beyond the arc, the T-Birds would fall for the first time this season with a 75-66 home loss coming at the hands of Sunrise Christian Academy inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday, November 13th.

With now four games complete on the year, Cloud County is 3-1 overall after being held to a season low in points while struggling in their all-around shooting performance as a whole.

"I need to take a lot of the blame for the loss tonight as it was our first weekday game of the year where we our players in class during the day and I didn't get them fully prepared for what to expect against a very talented Sunrise Christian team" said head coach Jordan Altman in a post-game interview. "I'm actually fairly proud and impressed in how engaged we stay tonight despite how poorly we shot the ball tonight and to avoid the tendency of giving up and not competing." "Up until the last 45 seconds our guys continued to compete and put forth a full effort despite one of the worst shooting performances I've had as a head coach." "Seven missed free throws and two on the front ends of one-and-one opportunities is nine points in itself and even if we go five-for-23 instead of two-for-23 from three it's a tie game despite such a poor shooting performance so there are positives to take away from tonight."

The shooting woes would be present from the start as CCCC would miss its first seven field goals and along with two of their first four free throw attempts to start the game while the visiting Buffaloes would knock down each of their first five shots to go up 11-2 three minutes into the game. Sunrise Christian's lead would grow to 13 at 15-2 before a Ty Duin jumper would finally get a field goal to go for the T-Birds as Cloud County would then get a mini 5-0 run from Jay Lewis to pull back within six at 15-9 with 14:17 left in the first half.

Trailing by a score of 19-13, CCCC would utilize a DJ Sims layup to start another 5-0 run as Iyen Enaruna would tie the game at 19-19 just before the halfway point of the first half and take their first lead 30 seconds later on a Sims layup. The Buffaloes would respond however with a triple to reclaim the lead as the next seven points would go to Sunrise Christian with Cloud County being forced to endure a 3:34 scoreless streak.

A Sami Sanad steal and dunk would pull the T-Birds back within one at 26-25 as CCCC would manage to tie things once more at 28-28 with 3:52 remaining before halftime. Enaruna would give the T-Birds their final lead of the game on a free throw to give CCCC a 29-28 lead as a 10-2 run by Sunrise Christian would end the half with the Buffaloes holding a 38-31 lead.

Hoping to avoid the slow start that put them in a hole to start the game, Cloud County would see Sunrise Christian start the second half by scoring six of the first eight points of the half which would put the score at 44-33 in favor of the Buffaloes. Denzel Ndongosi and Lewis would each get layup on consecutive possessions to put the deficit back in single-digits as an 8-2 CCCC run pulled the T-Birds within five at 46-41 with 15:31 remaining in the game. Cloud County would be unable to make any more headway however on the deficit as an 8-2 run by Sunrise Christian put the Buffalo lead back at 11.

The T-Birds would once again use a pair of quick buckets to cut the deficit back to single digits as Sims would get a layup and pull up jumper to put the score at 55-49 in favor of Sunrise Christian, but three free throws and a 2:05 scoring drought once again gave the Buffaloes some more breathing room. Cloud County would attempt to make one final push in the final minutes to close within two possessions at 68-62 on a pair of Sims free throws, but Sunrise Christian would have a response each time on the offensive end as the T-Birds would never fully be able to completely close the gap and fall by nine.

CCCC's 36.2 percent (25-for-69) shooting performance would very much be caused by a two-for-23 performance from beyond the arc although free throw shooting would not fare much better for the T-Birds (14-for-22, 63.6 percent). Cloud County would hold a 47-36 advantage on the glass, and outscore Sunrise Christian 16-6 in second chance points despite being edged 29-28 in bench points.

Sims would lead all scorers with 16 points in the game while Lewis would add 14 points off the bench as 38 of Cloud County's 66 points would come from starters. Enaruna would haul in a game-high 12 rebounds and add one block while Chad Vincent-Simon scored nine points and added five rebounds.

What's Next?

Cloud County will look to rebound with a 4 p.m. home game against North Platte Community College on Saturday, November 16th. The game will close out a four-game home stand for the T-Birds as the Knights are hosting Garden City on Wednesday night while sporting a 2-1 overall record.