NORTH PLATTE, Neb. - What started out as a defensive battle for 25-plus minutes of action would turn into a 71-53 road defeat for the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team to open up the 2021-22 season at North Platte Community College inside McDonald-Belton Gymnasium in North Platte, Nebraska on Monday, November 1st. 

Under first-year head coach Devin Kastrup, CCCC falls to 0-1 overall on the season while the Knights win in the season-opening game on the opening night of NJCAA basketball action to improve to 1-0. 

It would be a slow start to the game for Cloud County as the T-Birds would see host NPCC score the first seven points of the game until a Radovan Vidovic layup with 17:40 left in the first half would get CCCC on the board to make it a 7-2 contest. Starting just two-of-five from the free-throw line, the T-Birds would need to find alternative ways to come up with points in the early going as Corey Sawyer Jr. would drive to the bucket with a lay in to get the T-Birds within one at 12-11 with just over 12 minutes left in the opening period. 

The first tie of the game would come at 14-14 as Malang Athian would go one-for-two at the free-throw line as the shooting struggles would be apparent throughout the contest with CCCC going on a four-plus minute scoring drought following the free throw. Vidovic would then give Cloud County their first and only lead of the game a little over a minute later on a drive and floater in the paint to put the CCCC up 20-19 as the final 3:55 of the first half would see North Platte outscore the T-Birds 9-6 to put the score at 28-26 in favor of North Platte heading into halftime. 

Cloud County would again get off to a slow start to open the second half as NPCC would use an 8-2 run to go up 38-30 with 12:55 remaining in the game before taking their first double-digit lead of the contest at 41-30. The T-Birds would call a timeout just over a minute later trailing 43-31 as CCCC would look for anything and everything they could to try and build momentum with Justin Graham getting Cloud County back within single digits with his one and only three of the night with 5:00 left in the game to make it 52-45. Unfortunately for the T-Birds, the sputtering offense would continue throughout the remainder of the game as North Platte would begin to find some rhythm and pull away late as Cloud County would be outscored 19-8 down the stretch to close out a season-opening loss for the first time since the 2017-18 season. 

A poor shooting night would see CCCC go just 18-of-58 (31.0 percent) from the field while hitting on just 12 percent (three-of-25) attempts from three and 14-of-24 (58.3 percent) free throws. Limited to just 38 rebounds, Cloud County would be outrebounded 54-38 and 16 points in the paint which would all come in the first half. Second-chance points would be limited for both teams with the Knights holding a 5-2 advantage in the category along with a 22-14 margin at the charity stripe. 

Leading the T-Birds on the night would be a 12-point performance from Graham as the Colorado Springs, Colorado native would be the lone Cloud County player in double-figures as Nate Duckworth and Savian Edwards would both finish with nine points. Graham would also finish as the leading rebounder for CCCC with six boards which included five defensive rebounds in just under 26 minutes of action. 

What's Next? 
Cloud County will settle into the comfort of Arley Bryant Gymnasium for a season-long four-game homestand beginning on Wednesday, November 3rd when the T-Birds play host to the Friends University JV team at 7 PM. Friends JV took on Independence Community College on Monday night and fell by a score of 112-57 in their first game of the season.