CONCORDIA, Kan. - Using a 24-4 advantage in points off turnovers and 46-14 advantage in points in the paint, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would build a 24-point lead at the half to cruise to a 77-29 win over the Bethany College JV team inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday, November 10th.
The win allows Cloud County to remain perfect at home with three wins to improve to 3-1 overall on the season.
"It feels like we've played three opponents in a row now where we knew going in we were the better team and I think it showed tonight as we weren't locked in like we need to be moving forward" said head coach
Devin Kastrup in a post-game interview. "Despite not having the focus we needed tonight, this was a game that was necessary to prepare as we move towards conference play and allow us to clean some things up after making mistakes without really being punished for them." "We're really looking forward to a second chance at North Platte on Saturday as it will be an opportunity to ramp things back up before starting conference play next week at Northwest Kansas Tech."
Hitting on shots from both inside the paint and outside the arc, the T-Birds would score nine of the first 11 points to build a 9-2 lead after four minutes of action before seeing the Swedes close back within four at 12-8 following a 6-3 run over the next three-plus minutes of action. Defensive pressure would then ramp up for CCCC as Bethany JV would endure a nearly seven-minute scoring drought which allowed Cloud County to go on 16-0 run capped off by a
Joe Kearney three-point play that would make things a 28-8 score in favor of the T-Birds with 6:27 left before halftime. Down the stretch, both offenses would begin to cool off as neither team would be able to muster much in points with CCCC outscoring the Swedes 10-6 in the final 4:46 of the opening period to lead by a score of 38-14 heading into halftime.
Wasting no time to add to their lead, Cloud County would come out six of the first nine points with Kearney adding four of the six to go along with a
Nikola Milojevic layup to make it a 44-17 lead as the T-Birds would be in full control and well on their way to another home victory. CCCC would then push their lead to 30 with at 49-19 with 12:13 remaining in the contest on another Milojevic layup as the T-Birds would look to get out in transition and push the pace against a short-handed Bethany JV team that featured only eight players. As the second half continued, the lead would grow for Cloud County with things reaching the 40-point mark on a Kearney triple with just under six minutes remaining as the T-Birds would score 10 of the final 14 points to take their largest lead of the game with 38 seconds left and manage to end things by the same margin.
Shooting just over 45 percent in both halves, CCCC would finish with a 45.5 percent (30-of-66) field goal range despite going just seven-of-31 (22.6 percent) from three and 10-for-14 (71.4 percent) from the charity stripe. Bethany JV would be limited to just five made field goals in each half while shooting 18.9 percent (10-for-53) from the field and two-of-14 (14.3 percent) from beyond the arc while not faring much better from the free-throw line (seven-for-12, 58.3 percent). A plus eight rebounding margin for Cloud County would see the T-Birds grab 45 rebounds to 38 for the Swedes while also limiting their turnovers to a total of 12 while assisting on 13 of their 30 made field goals.
Career-bests from Kearney (20 points) and Milojevic (12 points) would lead CCCC as
Savian Edwards would join the duo in double-figures with 10 points of his own to go along with six rebounds. Milojevic would also lead the team in rebounds with seven while
Uros Stepanovic set new career-highs in points (nine) and minutes played (10).
What's Next?
Cloud County will look to avenge a season-opening 71-53 road loss to North Platte Community College when the T-Birds play host to the Knights for a 4 p.m. tip-off on Saturday, November 13th. NPCC fell by a score of 92-75 on the road Wednesday evening to Colby Community College to drop to 2-3 overall with two of the three losses coming to the Trojans.
