COFFEYVILLE, Kan. – A first-half defensive battle would allow the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team to hold a three-point lead into the opening minutes of the second half before fading in an 82-67 loss at number-two ranked Coffeyville Community College inside Nellis Hall in Coffeyville, Kansas on Wednesday, February 24th.
As the T-Birds head towards the mid-way point of the regular season, CCCC is now 4-6 overall and 2-6 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the Red Ravens continue their unbeaten streak to open the year to improve to 11-0 overall and 9-0 in the KJCCC.
Taking advantage of a mix of poor shooting from Coffeyville to go along with some open early threes, Cloud County would manage to jump out to a 35-33 halftime lead. The trend of the T-Birds using the long-range shot to stay up on the Red Ravens would carry over into the first four-plus minutes of the second half as CCCC would continue to hang tough with Coffeyville before an 11-2 run would allow the Red Ravens to go up 10 at the second-half media timeout with just over nine minutes remaining. Despite the early success from Cloud County, the T-Birds never would be able to recover from the run as Coffeyville would push their lead to as many as 18 in the final minute to stay undefeated while holding their 11th straight opponent under 70 points.
Back-court play would lead the way for the T-Birds as sophomore Savian Edwards would score a team-high 16 points just two nights after setting a new career-high while Detavius Frierson would score 13 to go along with four rebounds. As a team, Cloud County would shoot 36.8 percent (25-of-68) from the field which included a 10-for-28 (35.7 percent) mark from three but would only shoot 58.3 percent from the free-throw line (seven-of-12).
Coffeyville would overcome a slow first-half to finish 33-of-72 (45.8 percent) from the floor despite hitting on just three-of-17 (17.6 percent) from beyond the arc. Free-throw shooting would also be of concern for the Red Ravens as CCC would go just 13-of-20 (65.0 percent) at the line but would take advantage of 18 second-chance points and 13 points off turnovers.
What's Next?
Cloud County will take a quick detour from KJCCC East Division play to host Garden City from the Jayhawk Conference West in a make-up game at 8 p.m. on Monday, March 1st. Originally scheduled for February 13th, the game was postponed due to health and safety protocols as set forth by the KJCCC. The Broncbusters are 3-4 overall and 2-4 in the KJCCC ahead of a Saturday matchup at Dodge City following an 88-79 home loss to Barton on Wednesday evening.
