CONCORDIA, Kan. – Snapping a four-game losing skid, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would trail for just a total of 50 seconds before going on to build a nine-point halftime lead and pulling away in the second half for a 79-62 home victory over Colby Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday, January 14th.
Getting back into the win column allows Cloud County to improve to 11-7 overall and 7-5 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College with the conference slate halfway done. Colby has now lost their past 11 games to fall to 4-14 overall and 1-11 in the KJCCC.
Open shots from beyond the arc would not fall for the T-Birds in the opening minutes of the contest which would force Cloud Count towards an offensive style that would attack the paint as all six points scored in the first three-plus minutes of the game would come near the rim. Holding a 4-2 lead, Cloud County would get a
Justin Graham free throw at the 16:22 mark before a
Cheikh Sow fast break dunk to cap off a 9-2 run while holding Colby scoreless for a stretch of nearly four minutes. As both teams would settle in offensively, it would be the T-Birds who would control both the tempo and momentum to take a double-digit lead at 14-3 with the game approaching the mid-way point of the first half.
A 6-1 Colby run would trim an 11-point Cloud County lead down to just six before a
Malang Athian layup would briefly slow the Trojans as the run would grow to a 10-3 run to see the T-Bird lead down to four at 17-13. Second-chance points by Graham off an Athian offensive rebound would spark the Cloud County offense once again with a 12-2 run pushing the lead back out to double-digits at 29-16. Looking to keep Colby from making a run before halftime, Cloud County would limit the Trojans from cutting into the lead by matching the scoring output over the next two minutes of play but wind up seeing a 6-3 end to the half in favor of Colby drop the lead down to single-digits heading into the locker room.
Colby again would score the first basket of the half when the game would resume before Cloud County would manage to put together a 9-2 run to take a 14-point lead at 46-32 with 17:40 left in the contest. Refusing to let the T-Birds pull away with nearly a full half of basketball left, Colby would score the next four points while keeping Cloud County from growing their lead any more over the next four-plus minutes of game time. After a Julius Morris three for Colby would drop the Cloud County lead down to 12 with 13:26 remaining, the T-Birds would respond with a
Cheikh Sow triple and
Corey Sawyer Jr. layup to go up 17 and eventually pushing their lead to 20 on a
Joe Kearney made three.
Having finally broken the game open, Cloud County would continue to work with a sizeable advantage through much of the remaining 10-plus minutes in the game as Colby would get no closer than 16 the rest of the way to never truly threaten a potential comeback and allow the T-Birds to cruise to a 17-point victory.
Finishing just shy of a 45 percent (28-of-63, 44.4 percent) performance from the floor, Cloud County would manage to shoot over 50 percent from the field in the second half to offset a six-of-19 (31.6 percent) performance from beyond the arc and 17-for-29 (58.6 percent) outing from the free throw line for the game. Colby would hold a 47-40 advantage in rebounds but be hurt by 22 turnovers compared to just 10 for Cloud County as the T-Birds would outscore the Trojans 25-3 in points off turnovers. Points in the paint would also be a boon for Cloud County with the T-Birds outscoring Colby 44-30 in the paint and 12-4 in fast break points.
Leading all scorers in the game would be Kearney with 19 points and two steals while Sawyer Jr. would finish with 17 points, five rebounds, and four steals. Graham would approach triple-double territory mid-way through the second half before finishing with a 15-point, 10-rebound, and six-assist double-double in 25 minutes of work while Sow would join the others in double-figures with 11 points. Colby would have three players in double-figures with Joshua O'Garro leading the way with 16 points off the bench.
What's Next?
Cloud County will have their first opportunity of the year for a regular-season sweep of an opponent as the T-Birds will head to Goodland, Kansas to take on Northwest Kansas Technical College in a 7:30 PM Mountain Time tip-off from Max Jones Fieldhouse on Wednesday, January 18th. Following a 7-4 start to the season, Northwest Tech has dropped their past six contests including a 92-72 road defeat at Coffeyville on Saturday to fall to 7-10 overall and 3-9 in the KJCCC. Cloud County earned a 67-52 home win over the Mavericks back on November 16th in the conference opening game for both teams.
