CONCORDIA, Kan. – Going up by as many as 24 in the second half, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would never trail visiting Pratt to cruise to a 77-61 home win over the Beavers inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday, February 10th.
Getting back into the win column for the first time in two weeks, the T-Birds improved to 4-3 overall and 2-3 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Pratt falls to 1-4 overall and still in search of their first KJCCC win at 0-4 in the league.
Both teams would look to push the pace in the opening minutes of the contest, but it would be CCCC who would be successful in their game plan as the T-Birds would score the first five points of the contest to force PCC into an early timeout. A Detavius Frierson jumper with 15:54 remaining in the first half would make it a 7-0 contest in favor of Cloud County as Pratt would go nearly the first five minutes of the contest before finally getting on the board.
The T-Bird lead would grow to eight as David Acosta would throw down a monster dunk after driving the paint to put CCCC up 11-3 before seeing Ibrahim Drame make it a 10-point game at 15-5 with 9:50 left in the opening period. Cloud County would then manage to hold their lead in the double-digit territory before seeing the Beavers respond with five quick points to cut the lead in half with just over four minutes left before halftime. Following the run by Pratt, CCCC would manage to end the half on a 9-0 run capped off by an Eduardo Peralta-Garcia triple as the Beavers would end the half with the same shooting woes they started the game with as the T-Birds would claim a 33-19 lead at the break.
Four quick points to open the second half courtesy of Peralta-Garcia and Acosta would force the Beavers into another timeout just 54 seconds into the second period as Cloud County would look to put the game away early on in the second. Back-to-back Frierson layups would allow the T-Bird lead to eclipse the 20-point mark as Pratt would continue their scoring drought from the end of the first half before finally breaking through and scoring six straight to pull back within 16 at 41-25.
Cloud County would be able to push their lead back out to 21 at 49-28 with 14:28 remaining as CCCC would use an 8-3 run to kill off any momentum that Pratt was trying to build as the Beavers could not find a way to get any closer than 18 in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. The T-Bird lead would then grow to its largest margin on a Zavien Smith triple with 10:31 left in the game to make things a 58-34 lead for Cloud County as the T-Birds would be in full control.
Five straight points from the Beavers would get the attention of Cloud County head coach Jordan Altman as the T-Birds would call a timeout to discuss things with 9:20 remaining as PCC would once again look to be building some momentum despite the large deficit. The T-Birds would then manage to match the Beavers point for point over the next five-plus minutes of action before eventually pushing their lead back out to 23 at 72-49 with just over three minutes in the game as the Beavers would be unable to get the deficit back under 20 until the final seconds with the final five points of the contest.
Playing the role of the aggressor, CCCC would finish the game by shooting 49.1 percent (27-of-55) from the field while also going to the charity stripe 27 times compared to just 19 for Pratt. Both teams would come away with 44 rebounds, but the T-Birds would hold a 20-13 advantage in points off turnovers and 35-26 advantage in bench points to make up the final margin of victory.
Getting back into an offensive rhythm, Jack Doumbia would finish with a game-best 19 points on seven-of-11 shooting while Smith would score 15 and add 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double. Peralta-Garcia would also have a strong shooting night, connecting on all three attempts from beyond the arc and finishing four-of-five from the field with 11 points.
What's Next?
With Saturday's scheduled home game postponed due to health and safety protocols, Cloud County is now slated to have a full week to prepare for back-to-back road games next week beginning on Wednesday, February 17th with a road trip to Seward County. The Saints were off on Wednesday night after having their scheduled game with Neosho postponed due to health and safety protocols, but have moved up their originally scheduled Saturday contest with Butler to Thursday evening.
