EL DORADO, Kan. – Holding a 54-37 lead midway through the second half, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would be taken to overtime where host Butler Community College would be able to down the T-Birds by a final score of 81-76 in El Dorado, Kansas on Monday, March 15th.

The loss drops Cloud County to an overall record of 4-12 while now sitting with a 2-12 mark inside the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference as Butler avoids a third-straight loss to improve to 12-4 overall and 10-4 in the KJCCC.

Monday night's rematch from three weeks prior would be nothing like the first meeting that saw BCCC take a 90-63 decision as the T-Birds would come out strong to jump out to a 13-6 lead thanks in part to 11 quick points from Savian Edwards. Butler would manage to tie things back up at 13-13 with 10:45 left in the first half before seeing Cloud County get buckets from Edwardo Peralta-Garcia and Ibrahim Drame to go back up 17-13 midway through the opening period of action.

CCCC would go on to extend their lead to seven on a Malang Athain triple just two minutes later as the Grizzlies would see Cloud County come out with a strong shooting performance to start the game. After seeing BCCC cut the deficit from seven to three, the T-Birds would manage to hold off Butler from getting any closer before seeing CCCC go on an 8-0 run to take their largest lead of the first half at 32-21. Butler would go on to score six of the final eight points of the half to cut the Cloud County lead back under double-digits as CCCC would hold a 34-27 lead heading into halftime.

In the second half, Cloud County would do their best to keep the Grizzlies at arm's length as the CCCC lead would hover between four and nine points for much of the opening seven minutes of play. After an Athian triple would put the T-Birds back up eight at 45-37, Dyelan Reed would hit a triple just over a minute later for Cloud County as a 10-0 CCCC run would be capped off by an Athian dunk to make it a 17-point lead.

Butler would not go down without a fight, however, scoring the next eight to get the Cloud County lead back to single-digits as the T-Birds would catch a break with a Grizzly technical foul that would allow Edwards to sink a pair of free throws to put things at a 58-48 lead. Zavien Smith would then score five of the next seven to put CCCC back up 14 points at 63-49 with 6:12 remaining, but BCCC would turn up the pressure on the defensive end to get back within two with just over three minutes remaining.

A wild finish to the second half would see Smith put Cloud County back up five at 66-61 before a pair of Butler free throws followed by a Grizzly layup would make it a one-point contest with 20 seconds left in regulation. BCCC would then foul Drame who would miss the front end of a one-and-one as the Grizzlies would call their final timeout to draw up a potential game-winning play.

The timeout would lead to a driving layup by Shawn Hopkins as Butler would take the lead with 6.8 seconds remaining as the Grizzlies would hold a 67-66 lead with Cloud County out of timeouts and possession of the ball. A quick inbounds to Smith would see the Orlando, Florida native fouled underneath his own hoop with four seconds left as the sophomore would go on to hit one-of-two free throws to tie things and send the game to overtime as a Butler runner at the buzzer would be off the mark.

Playing their first overtime contest of the year would prove to be problematic for CCCC as Butler would come out scoring six of the first eight points of the extra period to go up 73-69 before fouling Reed on a three attempt with 2:39 remaining. Reed would step up and hit all three free throws to get Cloud County back within a point at 73-72, but the Grizzlies would ultimately close out the contest by scoring eight of the next 10 points to build a seven-point lead as Smith would get a layup in the final seconds to that wouldn't affect the final outcome.
  
After going 24-of-61 (39.3 percent) from the field in regulation, Cloud County would finish the game just two-of-six from the field while missing on all three attempts from beyond the arc in the extra session. Butler would manage to go four-for-five (80.0 percent) from the floor in the overtime period to finish the game 26-of-67 (38.8 percent) from the field while also hitting 10 three's as part of a 10-for-36 (27.8 percent) output from beyond the arc.

Cloud County would get a team-high 23 points from Edwards who would also grab seven rebounds and add three assists despite playing just 24 minutes and fouling out with 1:05 left in regulation. Smith (13), Reed (11), and Athian (10) would also join Edwards in double-figures as Cloud County's starting five accounted for 55 of CCCC's 76 points. Butler would also have four players reach double-figures on the night led by a game-high 24 points from Noah Thomasson.

What's Next?
The T-Birds will be back home for homecoming as CCCC will host Coffeyville Community College for an 8 p.m. tip-off on Wednesday, March 17th. Coffeyville will enter the contest ranked number six in the country and boasts a 15-1 overall record and 13-1 mark in the KJCCC following an 84-45 win over Neosho on Monday night.