CONCORDIA, Kan. – The final two-week push of the regular season would get off to a big start for the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team with a dominant 76-66 home win over number-13 nationally ranked and conference-leading Dodge City Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium in Concordia, Kansas on Wednesday, February 15th.
 
Avenging an 82-80 loss from earlier this season at the hands of the Conquistadors, Cloud County improves to 13-13 overall with the victory and 9-11 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference after holding DC3 to their second-lowest scoring output of the season. Dodge City falls to 19-7 overall and 15-5 in the KJCCC after suffering their first loss since January 25th.
 
A hot start from the T-Birds would see each of CCCC's first two three-point attempts knocked down as part of an 8-3 start to the contest in the first 2:21 of action. Dodge City would respond with a 6-0 run to go up a point at 9-8 before seeing a Joe Kearney three put Cloud County back on top with just over 15 minutes left in the first half. Both teams would then endure a nearly three-minute scoring drought as things would become sloppy on both ends of the floor with points beginning to prove to be hard to come by. Buckets for both teams with just under 12 minutes left in the first half would end the drought and keep things at a four-point CCCC lead with the T-Birds eventually growing their advantage to eight at 19-11 with 8:33 left before halftime.
 
Six quick points from DC3 would see the Cloud County lead cut down to just two over the next two minutes of action before a Ja'Ron Briggs Jr. made three would swing momentum back in favor of Cloud County to keep the Conquistadors from having an opportunity to reclaim the lead. CCCC's lead would hover between three and five points over the next three minutes of game time before a step-out Justin Graham triple would put the T-Birds back up seven at 31-24 with 2:08 left in the half and a little breathing room to work with. Both teams would then trade layups over the final two minutes with Dodge City scoring the final points of the half on a drawn-up inbounds play to get within five as Cloud County would take a 33-28 lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
Beginning the second half with about as good of start as one could ask for against a top-15 ranked opponent, Cloud County would jump out all over Dodge City by scoring 11 of the first 14 points of the second half to go up 13 and eventually 17 at 49-32 with 15:42 remaining to force a Conquistador timeout. Maintaining their largest lead of the game for the next two-and-a-half minutes of game time, the T-Birds would see Dodge City eventually go on a 7-0 run thanks in part to two CCCC turnovers as the lead would be cut down to 10 to force a Cloud County timeout at the midway point of the second half.
 
Trying to protect their lead and maintain some separation with the Conquistadors, Cloud County would see Dodge City get the deficit down to single digits following a transition layup with 7:43 remaining in the game before coming up with a big answer as Corey Sawyer Jr. would connect on a corner triple to put CCCC back up 12 at 61-49. Two defensive stops would then lead to Cloud County making their way to the free throw line on the offensive end of the floor with Sawyer Jr. hitting a pair of free throws to put CCCC up 14 with the T-Birds starting to pull away with just under five minutes remaining. Knowing that Dodge City would have one final push in them to try and get back into the game, CCCC would endure an 8-2 DC3 run that would see the lead cut down to nine at 66-57 with 2:31 to go before seeing the Conquistadors start to foul to extend the game.
 
Struggling from the free throw line at the worst possible time, Cloud County would trade points at the charity stripe over the next two possessions for each team to keep maintain their lead before coming up with a breakaway layup after getting past the full court pressure being deployed by Dodge City. Holding a 12-point lead with 1:40 remaining, CCCC would not allow DC3 to get any closer than nine in the final minute of the game while managing to come away with a double-digit victory and become just the second team to defeat Dodge City by more than six points this season.
 
A foul-happy game would see 49 total fouls lead to 63 free-throw attempts with neither team shooting the ball particularly well from the charity stripe (19-of-32 for Dodge City, 21-of-31 for Cloud County). Overall, CCCC would hold DC3 to a 28.9 percent (22-for-76) shooting percentage while hitting on 45.1 percent (23-of-51) of their shot attempts while also outscoring the Conquistadors 27-9 from beyond the arc. Turnovers would be an issue for Cloud County on the night, with 28 turnovers leading to 25 points for Dodge City compared to just 14 DC3 turnovers leading to 14 points for CCCC.
 
Led by a game-high 23 points from Sawyer Jr., Cloud County would get an 18-point, 11-rebound double-double from Graham along with a 12-point outing from Malang Athian as the T-Bird starting five would score 67 of CCCC's 76 total points in the game. Sawyer Jr. would also haul in seven rebounds and dish out four assists while going seven-of-nine from the free throw line to move within 18 made free throws of the single-season school record set by Devon Branch in 2011-2012. Dodge City would have four players in double-figures and get a team-high 15 points from reigning KJCCC player of the Week Jason Edwards.
 
What's Next?
Having just taken down one of now two teams tied atop the KJCCC standings, Cloud County will get an opportunity to take on the other conference leader in Coffeyville Community College at home with a 4 PM tip-off on Saturday, February 18th. The Red Ravens will enter the game with a 21-5 overall record and a 15-5 mark in the KJCCC after having the conference bye on Wednesday evening. In their last game at Independence, Coffeyville won 94-84 to run their recent winning streak to three games. CCC is just 6-4 in true road games this year while holding a 13-1 record at home.