ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. – Giving up six straight points to begin the game, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would never lead in what would become a 57-54 road defeat to Cowley Community College inside W.S. Scott Auditorium in Arkansas City, Kansas on Wednesday, January 11th.
 
A fourth-straight loss for the T-Birds will put CCCC at 10-7 overall and 6-5 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the host Tigers improve to 11-6 overall and 5-6 in the KJCCC. The single-digit defeat is the fourth of CCCC's five conference losses, with a pair of two-point defeats along with Wednesday's three-point defeat and last Saturday's seven-point overtime loss.
 
The 6-0 deficit to begin the game would come as Cloud County would be held without a point for the opening 2:38 of the contest as Malang Athian would finally get the T-Birds on the board with a made layup. Two made free throws by Cheikh Sow 30 seconds later would pull CCCC within two momentarily before seeing Cowley connect on a made three in what would become back-to-back made triples on consecutive possessions for the Tigers. Cloud County would then manage to get a pair of tip-in buckets from sophomore Justin Graham to cut the deficit down to four at 12-8 before eventually closing to within one on a made Andre Gray II three with 10:49 left in the first half.
 
Cowley would snap a six-plus minute scoring drought with a made dunk at the 9:59 mark of the first half followed by a pair of free throws a minute later to push their lead back out to two possessions and keep the T-Birds from taking the lead. A made layup in the paint from Corey Sawyer Jr. would break a five-minute scoring drought for CCCC as both teams would be content with a low-scoring contest in the opening 20 minutes of action with the T-Birds staying within striking distance throughout the half. Nine points would be split among the two squads over the final 2:46 of the first half with Cloud County scoring four points at the free throw line while Cowley would get a made three and pair of free throws to go up 28-24 heading into the halftime break.
 
Threatening to pull even once again in the opening minutes of the second half, Cloud County would score four of the first six points out of halftime to get within a bucket at 30-28 before seeing Cowley score nine of the next 11 to threaten to push their lead to double-digits. A much-needed bucket from Sawyer Jr. would break the run by the Tigers and allow CCCC to score five of the next seven points to get back within six at 41-35 as possessions would continue to be at a premium on the offensive end. The lead for Cowley would eventually reach double-digits for the first time at 45-35 on a made bucket in the paint from Cameron Jernigan with 8:56 remaining but be quickly offset by a made three from Ja'Ron Briggs Jr. to pull the T-Birds back within seven.
 
Joe Kearney would follow the made three by Briggs with a triple of his own to get CCCC within four as outside shooting down the stretch would allow Cloud County to cut the deficit to just three at 49-46 with 4:12 remaining. Matching each other with two points each over the next minute of action, the T-Birds would get within two with 1:21 remaining on a made Sawyer Jr. layup but see a layup on the other end of the court put Cowley back up by two possessions. A turnover by the T-Birds would then put CCCC in a must-foul situation to extend the game with Cowley in the bonus where they would have a chance to put the game away. Missing the front end of a one-and-one, the Tigers would manage to haul in an offensive rebound followed by a layup to go up six as Cloud County would never be able to get closer than three over the final 21 seconds of play with time ultimately running out on a potential comeback.
 
With CCCC holding a 35-30 advantage in rebounds and a 24-20 advantage in points in the paint, shooting would be the deciding factor on the night as Cloud Count would go 18-of-50 (36.0 percent) from the field compared to a 20-for-48 (41.7 percent) performance from Cowley. The Tigers would also outscore the T-Birds 18-15 from beyond the arc to offset a 13-11 advantage by the T-Birds in free throws while also turning the ball over just nine times.
 
A team-high 16 points would be scored by Sawyer Jr. as the sophomore would also haul in five rebounds while Graham would have a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double. No other player for Cloud County would score more than nine points in the game with both Gray II and Briggs Jr. scoring nine points off the bench with three other players for the T-Birds accounting for the remaining 10 points. Cowley would be led by a game-best 20 points from Mekhi Cameron who would also play a game-high 37 minutes.
 
What's Next?
For the second-straight weekend, Cloud County will be at home as the T-Birds will play host to Colby Community College on Saturday, January 14th. Tip-off is set for 4 PM against the Trojans in what will be the fourth meeting in the span of 365 days between teams. Colby dropped an 81-61 home game to Barton Community College on Wednesday night to fall to 4-13 overall and 1-10 in the KJCCC.