CONCORDIA, Kan. – Grinding through an opening 20 minutes of play, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would finally be able to put some separation between themselves and visiting Cowley County Community College in the second half to pick up a 70-60 win inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Monday, January 31st.
A surging Cloud County squad that has now won four of their past five games improves to 11-11 overall and 7-9 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference with the victory while Cowley drops to 12-11 overall and 8-9 in the KJCCC. The victory for CCCC marks the first time since February 11th, 2019 that the T-Birds have knocked off the Tigers and held Cowley under the 100-point mark.
Momentum swings early on would see both teams grab early leads as Cowley would score the opening bucket of the game on an offensive rebound and put back before conceding the next four points to Cloud County as the first eight points of the game would be traded to put things at a 4-4 contest three minutes in. Back-to-back
Joe Kearney triples would get the home crowd into the game as the T-Birds would get out to a six-point advantage that would manage to hold over the next three minutes of the game following a third triple from the Minneapolis, Minnesota native to make it 15-9 with 13:02 left in the first half.
Cowley would battle back by rattling off seven straight points to reclaim the lead at 16-15 just three minutes later as the game would become a back-and-forth affair for the next stage of the first period. Trailing 18-17 with 9:16 left before halftime, Cloud County would get a
Zion Obanla layup followed by a top-of-the-key three from the freshman to put the T-Birds up 22-18 as part of an 8-0 run that would make it 25-18 CCCC with just under six minutes remaining until halftime. Cloud County would then put together another late run towards the final minute of the opening period to take a lead of 11 at 32-21 off a
Corey Sawyer Jr. triple with 1:06 left but give up a three to Cowley in the final 34 seconds to put things at a 32-24 contest after 20 minutes of action.
Sawyer Jr. and
Malang Athian would come out firing from deep to open the second half as the T-Birds would look to offset another Cowley triple and match their 11-point lead from the first half before getting a fourth three from Kearney to put Cloud County up 42-29 with 17:33 left in the contest. After seeing Cowley cut the deficit back down to single-digits at 42-33, the T-Birds would manage to keep things right at the double-digit mark for the course of the next four-plus minutes of action before putting together a 5-1 spurt to go up 51-37 with just over 12 minutes remaining.
Another push from the Tigers would see Cowley get back within 10 at 51-41, but a
Savian Edwards triple would swing the momentum back in Cloud County's favor as a technical foul would be assessed to Cowley coach Donnie Jackson that would spark a 7-2 run to put CCCC up 61-43 with under nine minutes left in the second half. Doing their best to protect their lead after seeing a 28-point lead disappear on Saturday against Seward County, Cloud County would push their lead out to as many as 19 off another Obanla layup with 6:24 left in the contest before seeing back-to-back Cowley triples quickly cut the lead down to 13. The T-Birds would manage to weather the quick spurt and push their lead back out to 16 however with just under five minutes left as the Tigers never would be able to put together a run to seriously put a Cloud County win in jeopardy.
Holding a 34-30 rebounding advantage in the contest, Cloud County would outscore Cowley 32-22 in points in the paint and hold the Tigers scoreless in fast-break points as both teams would finish with 11 second-chance points. Despite getting outscored 13-8 at the charity stripe, Cloud County would continue its recent trend from beyond the arc by hitting on 10-of-21 (47.6 percent) of their attempts while finishing the game 26-for-55 (47.3 percent) from the floor.
Three players for CCCC would finish in double-figures led by a game-high 20 points from Sawyer Jr. who also recorded two assists and two rebounds while Obanla would record just the second double-double of the year by a Cloud County player by scoring 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Kearney pitched in 16 points to help the T-Birds as four other players would have at least four points in the game (Athian,
Nate Duckworth,
Justin Graham, and Edwards). Clarence King would lead Cowley after coming off the bench and scoring a team-high 17 points in 30 minutes of action.
What's Next?
The riddle that has become earning road victories becomes the focus for Cloud County on Wednesday, February 2nd as the T-Birds will travel to Pratt to take on a Beaver squad that has won nine of their 10 games this season at home. PCC is 10-10 overall and 5-9 in the KJCCC heading into Wednesday's tilt having dropped four of their past five games including a 73-62 defeat last Thursday at home to Butler.
