GARDEN CITY, Kan. – Coming off arguably their best week of the season with two wins over nationally-ranked opponents, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would run into a hot-shooting and number 24-ranked Garden City Community College team to drop a 72-60 road decision inside Conestoga Arena in Garden City, Kansas on Wednesday, February 22nd.
Falling back to an even .500 at 14-14 overall, Cloud County is now 10-12 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference with two games remaining in the regular season while the Broncbusters have now seven of their past eight games to improve to 20-7 overall and 15-7 in the KJCCC
Things would initially appear to be another low-scoring and defensive battle like what was seen back on January 7th when GCCC defeated CCCC in overtime by a score of 74-67 as both the T-Birds and Broncbusters would see early scoring slow down significantly as the first half would go on. Holding a 9-7 lead with 15:27 left in the first half, Cloud County would see Garden City manage to tie things at 9-9 on a pair of free throws before reclaiming the lead at 11-9 on
Joe Kearney bucket in the lane. Managing to maintain their one-possession lead up through the mid-way point of the opening period, CCCC would see the game being played at a pace that favored the T-Birds despite Garden City looking to push the tempo on the offensive end.
Leading by a score of 19-18 with just over seven minutes remaining before halftime, Cloud county would see a blocked layup lead to a transition layup for the Broncbusters allow GCCC to take the lead at 20-19 to start a 10-2 run that would give Garden City their largest lead of the first half at 29-21. Needing to make a push to cut into the deficit prior to the halftime horn, Cloud County would manage to hold the Broncbusters scoreless over the final 2:06 of the first half while snapping a four-minute scoring drought with a
Justin Graham corner triple. The made trey would be part of a two-for-one end to the half for CCCC with offensive possessions as the T-Birds would get a Ja'Ron Briggs Jr. defensive rebound with four seconds left in the half before making a pass to
Malang Athian for another made three to end the half and trail by only two at 29-27.
Five quick points by Garden city in the opening 35 seconds of the second half would see the halftime deficit quickly grow to seven before five straight points from
Corey Sawyer Jr. would come as a response for Cloud County to get back within two at 34-32. Following the spurt from Sawyer Jr., GCCC would get a made three from Jaborri McGhee to start a 20-5 run thanks in part to four made shots from beyond the arc. Having seen a two-point deficit balloon all the way to 17, Cloud County would see the Broncbusters add to their lead even more by outscoring CCCC 10-7 over the ensuing four minutes of game time to take their largest lead of the contest at 64-44 with 6:10 left in the game. Scoring four points to try and regain some momentum and make a late surge, CCCC would see Garden City match their scoring with four points of their own to keep Cloud County from making a meaningful attempt at getting within single digits in the final minutes despite seeing the T-Birds score 10 of the final 14 points in the game.
Struggling to keep the pace offensively with Garden City, Cloud County would shoot just 36.2 percent (21-of-58) from the field while seeing the Broncbusters hit on 28-of-48 (58.3 percent) shot attempts which included a nine-of-15 (50.0 percent) outing from beyond the arc. Other statistics that would benefit GCCC in the contest would include a 37-27 advantage in rebounds along with a 10-8 advantage in points off turnovers while Cloud County would score the only four second-chance points in the game.
Three players would finish in double-figures for CCCC and account for 43 of the 60 T-Bird points in the game with Sawyer Jr. scoring a team-high 16 points with nine points coming at the charity stripe to account for nine of Cloud County's 11 made free throws. Kearney would add 15 points and five rebounds alongside a 12-point, five-rebound performance Athian as no other player for CCCC would score more than seven. Garden City would get a game-high 21 from DaJion Humphrey who would record a double-double by grabbing 10 rebounds.
What's Next?
The final home game of the regular season comes on Saturday, February 25th for Cloud County as the T-Birds will play host to Cowley College in a 4 PM tilt from Arley Bryant Gymnasium. The game will not only serve as sophomore day and a chance for CCCC to avenge an earlier 57-54 loss to the Tigers on January 11th, but will also likely decide the number-eight seed in the upcoming NJCAA Region VI Tournament and the right to host a home playoff game. Following Wednesday's action that saw Cowley fall by a score of 82-76 at Butler in triple overtime, Cloud County will enter Saturday's game with a one-game advantage over the Tigers in the KJCCC standings. A Cowley win would set the tiebreaker in favor of the Tigers while tying the T-Birds in the conference standings with one game remaining while a Cloud County win would put CCCC two games clear of Cowley with one game remaining.
