CONCORDIA, Kan. – Allowing a season-high 19 three's the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would be unable to overcome the hot shooting of Neosho County Community College in a 94-76 home loss inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday, March 27th.

The loss drops CCCC to 5-15 overall and 3-15 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference East Division while the Panthers improve to 8-12 overall and 6-12 in the KJCCC.

Three-point shooting from NCCC would be evident from the start as Cloud County would fall into an 11-0 hole just 1:31 into the contest as Neosho would hit on their first three treys of the game and add a transition layup force an early timeout from the T-Birds. Cloud County would manage to battle their way back to cut the deficit down to five as Malang Athian would connect on a layup with 15:51 remaining in the opening period, and eventually get within two on a David Acosta dunk and free throw just 45 seconds later.

A response from the Panthers however would see NCCC hit three triples over the course of the next two minutes of play as the deficit would be pushed back out to nine with Cloud County having no answer for the hot shooting. The T-Birds would get things back to within seven at 25-18 following the first half under-10 minute media timeout, but see Neosho go back up 17 on a Daniel Titus four-point play with 6:37 left in the first half.

The final five-plus minutes of action in the opening period would see Cloud County face their largest deficit of the first half at 47-29 with 3:18 remaining, but go on an 8-0 run to get back within 10 with just over a minute left in the frame. Neosho would answer with their final triple of the first half before giving up an Ibrahim Drame layup to cap off the scoring as the score would sit at 50-39 after the opening half of play.

Cloud County would score five of the first eight points out of the gate in the second half to get the deficit down to single-digits at 53-44, but quickly see Neosho go on a 10-0 run to go up 63-44 with 16:48 left in the game. The potent three-point shooting would continue to be on point for the Panthers as Cloud County would trail by as many as 22 at the media timeout with 9:59 remaining.

Not much would go the way of CCCC down the stretch as Neosho would take their largest lead of the game at 84-58 with 5:56 remaining before scoring 10 of the next 14 to get things back to an 88-68 deficit. Cloud County would only be able to cut in the deficit another two points in the final three minutes however as NCCC would manage to sweep the season series from the T-Birds.

The three-point barrage from Neosho would see the Panthers start the game seven-of-10 from deep and 12-of-19 in the first half before going on to add seven more triples in the second half. For the game, Cloud County would muster only a 28-of-74 (37.8 percent) shooting percentage from the floor and go only 10-for-19 from the charity stripe while also facing a 44-40 deficit in rebounds and 24-14 deficit in second-chance points.

Leading Cloud County in the game would be Zavien Smith with a 15-point, seven-rebound outing while adding eight assists to flirt with a triple-double. Dyelan Reed would add 14 points while Acosta would grab 13 rebounds to go along with 12 points for a double-double. Neosho would be led by guard Cougar Downing who scored a game-high 24 points and hit six out of eight attempts from three.

What's Next?
The final week of the regular season will begin on Monday, March 29th with a road trip to Allen County Community College for an 8 p.m. tip-off. Allen is 6-14 overall and 5-13 in the KJCCC at the time of this release and is on the road at Butler Community College on Saturday evening ahead of their game with the T-Birds on Monday night.