CONCORDIA, Kan. – Battling back from a 16-point second-half deficit to tie things up in the final minute of play, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would see an Allen County layup with 1.8 seconds remaining be the difference in a 72-70 home loss to the Red Devils inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday, March 10th.

The loss puts Cloud County at 4-10 overall and 2-1 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the Red Devils improved to 4-11 overall and 3-10 in the KJCCC.

A strong start from CCCC would see the T-Birds score seven of the opening nine points of the game as freshman Detavius Frierson would convert a steal into a fast break layup just 3:14 into the game to put Cloud County up 7-2 and force Allen to burn an early timeout. The T-Birds would then hold onto their lead for the next five-plus minutes of play before seeing Allen tie things up at 12-12 as Cloud County would hold a 15-14 lead midway through the opening period.

ACCC would then use a 10-2 run over the course of 4:35 to take a seven-point lead at 24-17 before seeing Dyelan Reed break the run with a three to get Cloud County back within four before seeing the T-Birds give up another layup and call a full timeout. In the final 4:23 of the first half, CCCC would go on to score six straight points to get back within one at 27-26, but a three by the Red Devils would spark a 10-2 run to end the half as ACCC would lead 36-28 at the break.

In the second half, Cloud County would cut the Allen lead in half to get back within four at 38-34, but the Red Devils would respond with an 11-2 run to go up double-digits at 47-36 with 13:24 remaining in the game. The Allen lead would grow to as many as 16 on a transition layup from Amadou Traore as CCCC would trail 56-40 with 11:34 left before seven straight before the second-half media timeout to get back within nine at 56-47.

Out of the timeout, Cloud County would continue their run by scoring 11 of the next 12 as the run would be capped off as an 18-1 run to give the T-Birds a 58-57 lead with just over six minutes remaining. CCCC would continue to flow offensively as Reed would score seven of the next nine points to help Cloud County go up four as CCCC would push their lead to five before seeing Allen score seven straight to go back up by a score of 70-68 with 1:53 left in the game. A David Acosta dunk would tie things up at 70-all with just over a minute remaining in the contest as both teams would then go scoreless of their next offensive possessions.

Following Cloud County's empty possession, ACCC would call a timeout to draw up a play with 14 seconds remaining as the Red Devils would come down and get a driving layup to reclaim the lead with 1.8 seconds left. After a full-court pass would be tipped out of bounds and leave just 1.2 seconds left for the T-Birds to get off a desperation shot, CCCC would get an opportunity with Savian Edwards putting up an off-balance trey that would hit the back iron and bounce off as time expired.   

Hitting on nearly 50 percent of their shots, Cloud County would finish the game 28-of-59 (47.5 percent) from the field while hitting on nine-of-17 (52.9 percent) of their three-point attempts. Points off turnovers (26-10) and second-chance points (17-10) would wind up hurting CCCC in the long run however as the Red Devils would also hold a 36-34 advantage in points in the paint.

Finishing just one point shy of a tying a career-high, Edwards would finish with a game-high 21 points and five assists while Reed would come alive in the second half to score to score 10 of his 13 in the final 20 minutes of play. Cloud County would also get 12 points and four rebounds from Zavien Smith off the bench while Allen would have three players in double-figures led by a team-high 15 from Ed Wright II.

What's Next?
Cloud County will play host to the first of back-to-back ranked opponents up on the docket as number 22-ranked Cowley Community College will make a trip to Concordia for a 4 p.m. tip-off on Saturday, March 13th. The Tigers were 113-93 winners over number-20 Butler Community College on Wednesday, and are averaging 106.0 points per game.