CONCORDIA, Kan. – Recent shooting struggles for the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team carried over into Wednesday night's contest as the T-Birds would fall by a final score of 59-43 to Butler Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium in Concordia, Kansas.
With the continued offensive struggles, the T-Birds now sit at 11-14 overall and 7-12 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while being held to an average of under 56 points per game in their recent three-game losing streak. Butler continues their strong play of late to improve to 18-6 overall and 12-6 in the KJCCC with their only loss in the past four outings coming at Dodge City last Saturday.
Whether it was a mixture of defensive pressure of poor shooting, offense would be at a premium throughout the first half as both CCCC and BCCC would be held to one bucket each in the opening 5:09 of the contest. Trailing 3-2, Cloud County would take their first lead of the game on a
Joe Kearney kick out three from
Zion Obanla before seeing the Grizzlies respond with buckets on back-to-back possessions to go back up 7-5 with 13:24 left in the first period. A Butler free throw two minutes later would briefly put BCCC up three until a
Savian Edwards contested trey would go down to tie things at 8-8 as things would remain tied heading into the final 10 minutes of the first half.
Putting together a 7-0 run over a span of 3:40 to take their largest lead of the first half, Butler would begin to take advantage of what would amount to eight first-half turnovers for CCCC that would lead to an 8-0 advantage in points off turnovers. Needing to try and cut into the lead before halftime, the T-Birds would find a spark off the bench in the form of freshman
DeMarco Clayton who would hit the second of back-to-back Cloud County triples to get back within a point before conceding the final four points of the half to trail 21-16 heading into intermission.
Offense would prove to be a continued issue for CCCC into the second half as Butler would open the period with four straight points while holding the T-Birds scoreless for the first 4:32 and just three points over the first 7:11 of the period. Despite the scoring lull, the Grizzlies would be unable to take advantage of the opportunity as the deficit for Cloud County would only reach seven at 27-20 with 14:30 left in the game. As things progressed through the second half, Butler would begin to build separation as a 9-3 run would push the lead to double-figures for BCCC at 36-24 with 9:03 remaining.
Things would not get any better for the T-Birds in the latter stages of the second half as the Grizzlies would continue to find open shots and take advantage of defensive breakdowns by Cloud County that would ultimately lead to an 18-point deficit for CCCC. Once the lead hit double-digits with just over nine minutes remaining, Cloud County would be unable to ever get the deficit back under 10 as BCCC would hold the T-Birds to 10 points below their previous season-low of 53 points.
Points off turnovers (15-1) and points in the paint (18-8) would be the biggest advantages for Butler in the contest as the two teams would deadlock 37-37 in the rebounding battle as well as a 6-6 tie in second-chance points. The 43 points for CCCC would come on a season-low 25.0 percent (13-of-52) shooting performance with nine of the 13 field goals coming from beyond the arc (nine-of-27, 33.3 percent).
Only one T-Bird would finish with more than six points in the contest as Kearney would score a game-high 16 points and grab five rebounds while playing a team-high 34 minutes in the contest.
Justin Graham would add six points and eight rebounds while
Corey Sawyer Jr. would account for the remaining four points scored by the CCCC starting five. A balanced effort for Butler would see Eden Holt score a team-high 14 points and provide three assists and one block in his 14th conference start of the year.
What's Next?
The T-Birds are next scheduled to take on KJCCC-leading and number-six nationally-ranked Dodge City Community College at 3 PM on Saturday, February 12th. The Conquistadors battled number-18 Hutchinson to a 100-96 home win on Wednesday evening and now sit three games clear of a three-team logjam in second place in the conference standings after Wednesday's games with five games remaining in the regular season. On the season, DC3 is 21-4 overall which includes a 70-53 win in Concordia back on December 13, 2021.
