Box Score INDEPENDENCE, Kan. – A one-point halftime lead for the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would be erased by host Independence Community College as the T-Birds could never recover from an 11-point second-half deficit to fall by a score of 80-72 inside the ICC Field house on Wednesday, March 24th.
With three games remaining on the 2020-21 regular-season schedule, CCCC is now 5-14 overall and 3-14 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the Pirates remain in the hunt for an NJCAA Region VI home playoff game while improving to 11-8 overall and 9-8 in the KJCCC East Division.
A tightly contested opening 20 minutes of action would see neither team hold an advantage more than seven points as Cloud County would grab an early 7-6 lead on a
Detavius Frierson pair of free throws before giving up a triple to the Pirates to make it 9-8 ICC with 14:47 remaining in the first half. The triple from Independence would spark a 13-4 Pirate run as the T-Birds would face their largest deficit of the half at 22-15 as CCCC would call their second timeout of the half with 10:47 remaining in the first half. Cloud County would then chip away at the ICC lead over the next five-plus minutes of action to get things tied back up at 26-26 before trading three's with Independence to keep things tied up at 29-29. Neither team would be able to pull away from the other in the final four-plus minutes of the opening period as Cloud County would turn a one-point deficit into a one-point lead thanks to a
David Acosta dunk in the final 20 seconds of the half before seeing Independence come up empty on the final possession of the first period to put things at 35-34 heading into intermission.
In the second half, Cloud County would get a bucket from Frierson to open the half before seeing Independence score the next five points of the half to reclaim the lead at 39-37. CCCC would pull back within a point on a
Zavien Smith free throw before seeing Independence hit another triple to go back up four. Things would get tied up at 46-46 just minutes later as the T-Birds would manage to battle their way back yet again before seeing a 6-0 spurt from ICC give Independence a 52-46 lead. As the second half went on, the Pirates would manage to build their lead to double-digits with just under 10 minutes remaining as CCCC would need to find a spark to try and make another comeback. Despite not facing a shortage of time to try and mount a comeback, Cloud County would be turned away by the Pirates as CCCC would be unable to get any closer than two possessions as Independence would have a response for the T-Birds offensively to hang on for an eight-point win.
The contest would feature 13 lead changes and five ties as Cloud County would finish the game shooting 43.8 percent (28-of-64) from the field despite struggling from the free-throw line (13-of-21, 61.9 percent). The biggest difference in the game would come from beyond the arc as Independence would outscore the T-Birds 30-18 from deep to overcome a 45-39 advantage in rebounds for CCCC.
Netting a game-high 21 points, Frierson would also add four rebounds and five assists to lead the T-Birds while
Ibrahim Drame would add 16 points off the bench. Also reaching double-figures for Cloud County would be
Dyelan Reed who scored 13 points while both Smith and
Travis Beetch scored nine in the game. Independence had four players in double figures led by a team-high 20 from Jonathon Mogbo.
What's Next?
The home finale to the 2020-21 season for the T-Birds is up next as Cloud County will play host to Neosho County Community College in a 4 p.m. matchup on Saturday, March 27th. Neosho dropped an 86-68 decision on Wednesday night to Butler and will host Coffeyville Community College in a makeup contest tomorrow night before making the trip to Concordia on Saturday. The Panthers are 7-11 overall and 5-11 in KJCCC action following Wednesday night's defeat.
