CONCORDIA, Kan. – Home court was once again protected by the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team following a back-and-forth 40-minute battle that would lead to a 59-54 victory over Seward County Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday, November 30th.
 
Dating back to last season, CCCC has now won their last five home games in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play while improving to 8-2 on the 2022-23 campaign and improving to a perfect 4-0 in the KJCCC. Seward County falls for the second-straight game to drop to 5-3 overall and 2-3 in the KJCCC with both losses in the current two-game skid coming against the lone remaining unbeaten teams in conference play in Cloud County and Dodge City. The win for the T-Birds marks an eight-game winning streak which is the longest streak for the CCCC men since a season-opening 11-game winning streak by Cloud County to start the 2006-2007 season.
 
Points would be at a premium in the opening minutes of the contest as a layup from Nathan Jones of SCCC would be the lone points scored in the first three minutes of action. Getting on the board with a Joe Kearney layup after missing their first five shots of the game, the T-Birds would take their first lead at the 15:09 mark of the first half with another made basket by Kearney to account for their only points over the first 5:23 of game time. Trailing 7-4 near the midway point of the first half, CCCC would break their scoring drought with a Malang Athian dunk before being forced to endure another two-plus minute stretch without a bucket to allow Seward County to go up 12-6. The deficit for the T-Birds would remain at six until a layup from Athian and made runner from Corey Sawyer Jr. to offset a made layup from the Saints to trail by four at 16-12.
 
Finally able to force Seward County into a scoring drought of their own, Cloud County would make sure to take advantage by scoring each of the next seven points as part of an 11-3 run that would allow CCCC to take a 23-21 lead with 5:05 left before halftime. Seeing things tied back up at 23-23 just 20 seconds later, lead changes would begin to occur rapidly with three lead changes taking place in a span of 90 seconds with Ja'Ron Briggs Jr. creating the final change to put Cloud County up 27-26. The T-Birds would then look to create some momentum heading into the half by scoring on a pair of Cheikh Sow free throws before getting layups from Athian and Briggs Jr. to end the half as the one-point lead would grow to seven at 33-26 with the halftime horn sounding.
 
Back-to-back buckets from Seward County to open the second half would see Cloud County's lead quickly cut to three before a response from the T-Birds that would see 11 straight points scored by CCCC to take their largest lead of the game at 44-30 with 14:56 left in the contest. A much-needed bucket for SCCC to end a scoring drought of 4:29 would then allow the Saints to go on a 7-3 run to get back with 10 and eventually down to single digits as the T-Bird offense would be limited to just four points over the next five minutes of game time. After seeing the lead cut down to eight, CCCC would threaten to go back up by double-digits but be able to only get one free throw from Sawyer Jr. following a shooting foul that would allow Seward County to come back by scoring each of the next seven points to get within two at 51-49 with 4:42 left in the game.
 
Drawing a shooting foul in the paint, Athian would connect on a pair of free throws to push Cloud County's lead back to two possessions momentarily as the Saints would find an answer to get back within two just 40 seconds later. Continuing to answer SCCC on the offensive end, Cloud County would use a Kearney layup to go back up four before seeing Seward County connect on a deep three to pull within one and begin to make things uncomfortable for the home crowd. Drawing a foul with 54 seconds left, sophomore Justin Graham would hit on one of two free throws to put the T-Birds back up two before forcing an SCCC turnover with 33 seconds left.
 
Forced to use two timeouts to be able to get the ball inbounded, Cloud County would manage to drain over 20 seconds off the clock before the Saints would finally foul Sawyer Jr. with eight seconds remaining as the sophomore would hit both free throws in crunch time to make things a four-point game. After a timeout by Seward County, the Saints would throw up a desperation three that would be off the mark and fall harmlessly out of bounds for CCCC with two seconds left as the game would be all but over. One final foul from SCCC would send Graham to the free throw line to tack on one more free throw to cap off a five-point victory for the T-Birds in what has become their closest margin of victory during the current win streak.
 
For the second time under head coach Devin Kastrup, Cloud County would manage to win despite having a lower shooting percentage than their opponent following a 37.9 percent (22-of-58) outing from the field that included a two-for-23 (8.7 percent) effort from beyond the arc. Seward County meanwhile would shoot 41.2 percent (21-of-51) from the field and hit on five-of-19 (26.3 percent) of their three-point attempts while going to the free throw line just 12 times (seven-of-12, 58.3 percent). The two biggest differences in the game would come on points in the paint (32-22 Cloud County advantage) and points off turnovers (21-14 advantage for CCCC) as the T-Birds would be guilty of 17 turnovers compared to 25 for the Saints.
 
Three of Cloud County's starting five would reach double-figures including a team-best 15 points from Athian while Kearney (11) and Graham (10) would also hit the double-digit scoring mark. Graham would also grab a team-best seven rebounds while Kearney would record a game-high five steals as the trio combined to play a total of 107 of CCCC's 200 total minutes. Seward County would get a game-best 21 from Mario Whitley and 13 points from Wilson Dubinsky, but would have their remaining 10 players who saw action record just 20 total points in the contest.
 
What's Next?
Cloud County returns to the road to make the trek to Pratt, Kansas to take on a 4-5 overall Beaver squad that currently holds a 1-3 mark in the KJCCC. After starting the season with two losses, PCC rattled off four straight victories before dropping their past three games with their last game coming on Saturday, November 26th. Pratt's last victory came on November 16th in their conference opener against Seward County at home, as CCCC will look to earn their first win inside the Beaver Dome since November 22nd, 2016. Over the course of the past 10 meetings, Pratt has won seven meetings in a stretch dating back to January 28th, 2017 which included a stretch of six straight over the T-Birds before a pair of wins by CCCC during the 2020-21 season and 2021-22 season.