GREAT BEND, Kan. – A 30-point deficit in points from beyond the arc and 26 turnovers leading to 26 points for host Barton Community College would lead to a 74-55 loss for the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team inside the Kirkman Center in Great Bend, Kansas on Wednesday, February 8th.
The loss will see Cloud County drop to 12-12 overall and 8-10 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College while the host Cougars improve to 16-8 overall and 11-7 in the KJCCC while splitting the regular-season home-and-home series with the T-Birds.
Limited on offense while seeing the host Cougars hit on three of their first five three-point attempts would quickly send the T-Birds into a 9-2 hole just 3:31 into the contest as a transition layup 29 seconds later would put CCCC down and forced to call an early timeout. The deficit for Cloud County would reach double digits on the ensuing BCC possession following a one-of-two performance from the free throw line before the T-Birds would snap a two-and-a-half-minute scoring drought with a
Joe Kearney layup to kick off an 11-0 run that would end four minutes later on a
Justin Graham layup to give CCCC their first lead of the game at 13-12 with 10:20 left in the first half.
Once again, it would be three-point shooting for the Cougars as Barton would reclaim the lead on a Joseph Locandro triple before getting a steal and layup to go back up four at 17-13 as part of a 10-3 run that would put the score at 22-16 in favor of BCC. Trading buckets over the next two minutes of play, the deficit for Cloud County would remain at six with just over six minutes left before halftime before climbing to nine at 29-20 following another T-Bird turnover. An 8-2 run would be just what CCCC would need to close the gap yet again with the nine-point deficit cut to three following four consecutive
Corey Sawyer Jr. free throws to put things at a 31-28 Barton lead with 1:10 left in the period. Barton would have one final response in the opening 20 minutes as the seventh made triple of the half for BCC would come courtesy of Cougar Downing to give the Cougars a 34-28 advantage entering the locker room.
Three-point shooting would continue to be to the benefit of Barton in the early stages of the second half as the Cougars would connect on their eighth triple of the game to go up nine as Cloud County would be unable to cut into the BCC lead over the first four minutes of the period. After closing back to within six at 41-35, Barton would continue to torch the nets from deep to offset two-point buckets from the T-Birds as CCCC would see the deficit reach double-digits at the 12:04 mark in the second.
The three-for-four start from beyond the arc to the second half for Barton would allow the Cougars to remain in control at the midway point of the half before starting to pull away with the lead continuing to grow throughout the next four minutes of action. Seeing the game start to out of reach with just under six minutes remaining, an 11-6 spurt from BCC would allow Barton to go up 20 and never have any real threat of the T-Birds mounting a comeback with CCCC getting no closer than 17 over the final two minutes of the game.
CCCC would outshoot Barton in field goal percentage for the game, hitting 18-of-43 (41.9 percent) of their shots compared to a 39.3 percent (24-of-61) outing for the Cougars but see BCC hit 12 three-point field compared to just two for Cloud County which took a total of 12 three-point shots in the contest. Both teams would attempt 21 free throws, with the T-Birds outscoring the Cougars 17-14 at the charity stripe and outrebounding Barton by a 35-34 margin.
Setting a new career-high to lead Cloud County would be Ja'Ron Briggs Jr. with 16 points on five-of-seven shooting and a five-for-six performance at the free throw line to go along with seven rebounds in 25 minutes of play. The T-Birds would also have Kearney (13 points) and Sawyer Jr. (11 points) reach double-figures as the trio would account for 40 of the 55 points scored by CCCC. Barton would get a game-high 27 points from Cougar Downing as seven players would score for BCC in the victory.
What's Next?
A trip to El Dorado, Kansas for Cloud County is next in store as the T-Birds will take on 16th-ranked Butler on Saturday, February 11th at 4 PM. The Grizzlies fell to number 14 Dodge City on Wednesday evening in Dodge City as the Conquistadors would hit a game-winning shot with 3.8 seconds remaining to win 69-68.
