CONCORDIA, Kan. – Cutting a once 11-point deficit down to one with 5:11 remaining in the contest, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would see the turnover bug catch them late to allow visiting Barton County Community College to hand the T-Birds a 70-61 home defeat inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday, February 5th.
After winning four games in a five-game stretch, Cloud County has now dropped two straight to fall to 11-13 overall and 7-11 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Barton improves to 13-10 overall and 7-10 in the KJCCC and avoids a season-sweep by CCCC.
Scoring five of the first seven points, the T-Birds would get out to a strong start as both teams would look to grab early momentum despite numerous missed shots on both ends of the floor. Barton would come back and take their first lead of the game at 7-5 with 16:28 left in the first half as part of an 8-0 run that would push the lead out to 12-5 before a pair of
Justin Graham free throws would cut the lead back down to five. Another Cougar triple on the ensuing possession would push the lead to eight, but a technical foul would be called following the made shot as
Corey Sawyer Jr. would knock down both free throw attempts to keep things at a six-point deficit.
Both teams would then endure a nearly three-minute scoring drought as the lone point would come on a
Jalen Smith free throw before
Joe Kearney would get a floater in the paint to pull Cloud County within three at 15-12 with 11:20 left in the first half. Another response from Barton would lead to a quick layup as the two teams would trade the next four field goals before seeing Graham break the streak with a layup to bring Cloud County within one. Following the Graham layup, the Cougars would use an 8-2 run to push their lead back out to 27-20 with 3:33 left in the opening half before seeing
Malang Athian hit a triple to end the run. BCC however would score seven of the final nine points in the opening half to build a 34-25 lead as the T-Birds would see a last second-three be off the mark that would have cut the lead down to six.
Athian along with
Savian Edwards would combine to score five of the opening seven points in the second half as Cloud County would get back within six at 36-30 before seeing Barton take their first double-digit lead of the game at 41-30. Six of the next eight points would swing back in favor of CCCC as
Zion Obanla would hammer home dunks on back-to-back possessions with the second dunk leading to a three-point play. Despite the efforts from Cloud County, Barton would manage to keep things at a two-possession lead for much of the opening 13-plus minutes of the second half until a 7-0 spurt by the T-Birds made things a one-point game with 5:11 left in the contest.
Another massive response by the Cougars would see sophomore guard Trey Bates III knock down a triple on the next possession for BCC to put Barton back up two possessions as the three would lead to a 10-2 run thanks in part to three consecutive Cloud County turnovers. With the deficit pushed back out to nine, the T-Birds would need to make a late run to try and put pressure on the Cougars, but a foul on the floor followed directly by a technical foul would give Barton four consecutive free throws that would allow BCC to put things out of reach in the final 44 seconds.
Barton would hold a 42-38 advantage in the rebounding column and also outscore Cloud County 16-10 in points off turnovers despite getting outscored 16-10 in second-chance points. The T-Birds would also hold a 36-32 advantage in points in the paint despite shooting just 36.5 percent (23-of-63) from the field and five-of-24 (20.8 percent) from beyond the arc.
Four different players would score 11 points for CCCC as
Nate Duckworth, Athian, Edwards, and Obanla would all tie for the team lead. Obanla would grab a team-best seven rebounds and had four blocks while Duckworth provided four assists and six rebounds. Bates III led Barton with a game-best 19 points while grabbing six rebounds as one of just two Cougar players to finish in double-figures (Cougar Downing, 13 points).
What's Next?
Cloud County is slated to host Butler Community College at 8 PM on Wednesday, February 9th to close out their current stretch that has had four home games in an 11-day span. Butler fell by a score of 83-77 to Dodge City on Saturday afternoon and will visit Coffeyville Monday ahead of their trip to Concordia on Wednesday. Holding an 18-6 overall record, Butler is 10-6 in the KJCCC and handed Cloud County a 72-69 defeat in El Dorado on December 11th.
