ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. – An 18-0 run for host Cowley Community College mid-way through the first half would turn a two-point game into a 20-point deficit for the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team that the T-Birds could never recover from in a 69-49 road loss inside W.S. Scott Auditorium in Arkansas City, Kansas on Saturday, February 19th.
The loss drops Cloud County to 13-16 overall and 9-14 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference with one game remaining in the regular season as the T-Birds are officially knocked out of contention from hosting a home Region VI Playoff game. Cowley picked up their 15th win of the year to improve to 15-14 overall and 11-12 in the KJCCC ahead of their regular-season finale at Pratt on Wednesday.
Two and a half minutes of scoreless basketball to open the game would finally be broken by Cowley as a layup and jumper would put the Tigers up 4-0 before Cloud County would be able to get on the board with a
Justin Graham layup with 16:35 left in the first half. The low scoring opening to the contest would be a sign of things to come in the next six minutes of action as things would sit at a 9-5 Tiger lead following a free throw with 11:40 remaining in the half before a
Joe Kearney triple would pull CCCC within two at 9-7.
Following the Kearney triple, Cowley would use their largest run of the game by scoring 18-straight points over the next 7:37 of action as a scoring drought would occur for the T-Birds despite turning the ball over just four times in the first half. A Kearney jump shot would finally break the drought as the freshman would score each of the next five points for CCCC to get Cloud County into double-digits on the scoreboard. Despite the scoring from Kearney, Cloud County would see the deficit remain at 20 as Cowley would have a response for each bucket from the T-Birds until the final 1:23 of the half where Graham would score the final four points to make it a 32-16 contest heading into the break.
Malang Athian would hit a jumper to open the second half and pull Cloud County within 14, but back-to-back triples from Cowley would quickly put the deficit back up to 20 as the T-Birds would not have an answer for the outside shooting of the Tigers. As the second half played on, Cowley would continue to shoot from deep and connect as the lead would grow to as many as 28 at 62-34 with 6:55 remaining to take any potential chance of a comeback out of CCCC. Cloud County would outscore Cowley 11-3 in the final 4:46 of the game, but the damage was already done as the deficit would be too large to overcome.
After shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor in the first contest with the Tigers, Cloud County would see shooting struggles make their way to the T-Birds as part of a 19-of-53 (35.8 percent) performance that would include a four-of-21 (19.0 percent) mark from beyond the arc and seven-of-14 (50.0 percent) effort from the free-throw line. Cowley would knock down 11 triples as part of a 25-for-51 (49.0 percent) night from the floor while hitting on eight of their 12 free throw attempts as the Tigers would also outscore Cloud County 7-2 in second-chance points.
The lone two CCCC players to reach double-figures would be Kearney with a team-high 12 along with Graham with 10 as the two would account for nearly 45 percent of Cloud County's scoring output.
Zion Obanla would finish with nine points and seven rebounds despite spending much of the game in foul trouble as no other T-Bird would score more than five. Cowley's Clarence King would score a game-high 18 to go along with five rebounds and four assists for the Tigers.
What's Next?
Cloud County has one game remaining in the regular season as Colby Community College will be the final KJCCC Division I team to visit Arley Bryant Gymnasium this season. The game between the T-Birds and Trojans is set for 8 PM on Wednesday, February 23rd as the game will serve as both sophomore night for the men's basketball team and academic night for the CCCC Athletic Department. Colby dropped a 66-62 home game to Barton in their regular-season home finale on Saturday, falling to 15-12 overall. Earlier this year, Colby handed Cloud County an 83-70 defeat as the T-Birds could not overcome a 43-point second-half from the Trojans.
