CONCORDIA, Kan. – Four missed free throws in the final 3:13 of regulation by the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would prove costly Saturday afternoon leading to a 74-67 overtime defeat to Garden City Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on January 7th.
 
Dropping just their second home game of the year, Cloud County now sits at 10-6 overall and 6-4 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the Broncbusters move into a tie with the T-Birds at 11-4 overall and 6-4 in the KJCCC.
 
A hot start from the T-Birds on the offensive end would see CCCC connect on four of their first five shots of the game to jump out to a 9-6 lead after four minutes of play with points coming both from inside the paint and beyond the arc. Keeping Garden City close early on would be some key outside shooting as GCCC would elect to take their shots from beyond the arc with each of the first three made baskets by the Broncbusters coming from deep. Holding a 12-9 lead with 13:34 left in the first half, Cloud County would get a Justin Graham layup to spark a 7-0 run that would give the T-Birds a double-digit lead at 19-9 with momentum beginning to build on the CCCC bench.
 
Unfortunately for Cloud County, the T-Birds would end up going the next 6:22 without scoring which would allow the Broncbusters to score the next 13 points of the contest as a once 10-point lead for CCCC would turn into a three-point deficit at 22-19. Ending the drought with a made Corey Sawyer Jr. three, Cloud County would pull back even with 4:05 remaining before halftime but quickly see the Broncbusters score two buckets to go back up four. The T-Bird deficit would reach six at 28-22 with 1:48 left before intermission as Cloud County would manage to get a pair of Sawyer Jr. free throws and a made Joe Kearney triple to cut into the Broncbuster lead and trail by a 29-27 margin at the end of the first half.
 
Getting on the board first in the second half, Cloud County would get four straight points from Graham to reclaim the lead at 31-29 before giving the lead back up with Garden City scoring three straight points to go up a point at 32-31 with 16:54 left in regulation. Nearly two minutes of action would then go by without either team getting into the scoring column with the drought eventually ending on a made Graham dunk to put the T-Birds back up once again.
 
Adding to their lead with a made jump shot and Kearney trey, Cloud County would push their lead to six at 40-34 as Garden City would wind up going over four minutes of game time without scoring. Withstanding a 4-0 GCCC spurt, CCCC would maintain their six-point advantage before pushing the lead to eight which would allow the T-Birds to work with the lead heading into the final 10 minutes of the second half.
 
Despite multiple pushes from Garden City to try and pull even, Cloud County would have a response each and every time to keep the lead at two possessions as the lead would remain at seven with just 5:21 left in regulation. Back-to-back triples for the Broncbusters however including a transition trey off a missed Cloud County layup would pull GCCC within one heading into the final stretch of the second half with the T-Birds up 55-54. The game would then become tied at 55-55 with 3:33 remaining and the game still very much at stake.
 
Reclaiming the lead on a made Sawyer Jr. bucket, Cloud County would see Garden City make their way to the free throw line and connect on a pair of free throws to tie things up before sending the T-Birds to the line where Graham would hit on one of two free throws. The Broncbusters would manage to reclaim the lead at 59-58 with a rebound off the missed free throw that would lead to a layup with 1:28 remaining before forcing a CCCC turnover to maintain their one-point lead and begin to wind the clock down.
 
Standing tall, the T-Bird defense would block a potential Garden City layup and come up with the rebound as a foul would be called following the rebound to send Graham back to the free-throw line once more. Splitting a pair of free throws would lead to a tie at 59-59 with 27 seconds left as GCCC would be able to take the final shot if they wanted. A Garden City timeout with 15 seconds remaining would wind up erasing a potential Broncbuster turnover as GCCC would retain possession and still have a shot to hit a go-ahead bucket in the final seconds. The Cloud County defense would keep that from happening however as Graham would block a layup attempt with three seconds left to send the ball out of bounds and give the Broncbusters one final opportunity with a three-point attempt off an inbound pass hitting off the rim and falling to the court as time expired to send the game into overtime.
 
In the extra five-minute period, Garden City would come out and score five of the first eight points to go up 64-62 with 2:56 remaining before forcing a T-Bird turnover and getting a made shot to go up two possessions at 66-62. Two missed layup attempts on the ensuing CCCC possession would allow Garden City to come down and hit another shot from beyond the arc to go up seven at 69-62 with just under two minutes remaining as the T-Birds would never be able to get back within one possession the rest of way while seeing GCCC hit five of their final six free throw attempts to ice the game away.
 
After shooting nearly 42 percent from the field in regulation (20-of-48, 41.7 percent), Cloud County would be limited to just two made field goals on nine attempts (22.2 percent) in overtime while also going just one-for-five (20.0 percent) from three in the extra period. Garden City meanwhile would hit on three of their five shot attempts (60 percent) in overtime and make eight of their 10 free throw attempts in the final five minutes of the game to outscore CCCC 15-8 following regulation. Turnovers would be an issue for both squads as the two teams would combine for 98 points off turnovers (51-47 advantage for Cloud County) while also managing to score another 16 points in second-chance points (10-6 advantage for Garden City). The biggest difference in the game would come on the glass as the Broncbusters would hold a 42-32 advantage in rebounds.
Finishing one rebound shy of a double-double would be Graham who would finish with 25 points, nine rebounds, four blocks, and four assists to fill up the stat sheet while Sawyer Jr. would score 15 points and grab seven rebounds. Also reaching double-figures would be Kearney with 13 points with Malang Athian the next highest scorer for CCCC with seven points. Garden City meanwhile would get a game-high 34 points from DaJion Humphrey who would play all 45 minutes in the game and grab four rebounds while teammates David Elliot (13) and Jaborri McGhee (12) would also reach double-figures.
 
 
What's Next?
Cloud County will look to right the ship on Wednesday, January 11th when they make the trip south to Arkansas City, Kansas to take on Cowley Community College in a 7:30 PM matchup from W.S. Scott Auditorium.