Men's Basketball | 12/6/2024 2:29:00 PM

The Cloud County Community College men's basketball team plays host to Independence Community College in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play on Saturday, December 7. Tip from Arley Bryant Gymnasium will be at 4 pm and the game will be streamed on the T-Bird Sports Network.

In addition, this weekend's game will be Ugly Sweater Day. T-Bird fans are encouraged to wear their ugliest holiday sweater at the game. At halftime of the men's contest, Farm Country Ford of Concordia will be giving away $500 in the "Deck the Halls Dash" contest.

Cloud County is looking to rebound from a 73-66 loss at Colby in conference play on December 4. The T-Birds outscored the Trojans 49-37 over the final 20 minutes of play, but Cloud County never led in the second-half after falling behind by 19 points at halftime. Freshman guard Kuel Akot lead the way for Cloud County with a game-high 18 points with three made triples. Redshirt freshman Keyon Garrett-Miller chipped in 16 points with two assists and two steals. Freshman Elidjah Savane added 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Freshman Amare Johnson added seven points in just over 14 minutes of play.

Independence is coming off an 89-85 loss at home to Garden City on December 4. The Pirates enter Saturday's game at 5-5 overall and 1-3 in KJCCC action, with losses to Garden City, Colby and Coffeyville. Their lone conference victory was a 103-97 home win over Hutchinson, snapping the team's 21-game losing streak to the Blue Dragons.

Cloud County has won four of its last six meetings with Independence, including three of the last four matchups. The T-Birds swept the regular season series in 2023-2024, including capturing an 87-48 win in Concordia on January 3, 2024.

Cloud County enters this weekend's contest averaging 81.9 points per game with a plus-10.1 scoring margin. The T-Birds pull down 38.6 rebounds per outing with a plus-2.1 rebound margin. Cloud County also averages 13.8 assists, 6.8 steals and 3.9 blocked shots per contest.

Savane leads the T-Birds in scoring at 14.3 points per game on 62.2 percent shooting, which ranks eighth individually in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference. Savane has three double-doubles this season, and his 8.1 rebounds per game are first on the team and rank sixth in the KJCCC.

Garrett-Miller averages 12.6 points per game on 47.2 percent shooting from the field. Garrett-Miller leads Cloud County in assists at 3.1 assists per game.

Redshirt freshman Matthew Garber is averaging 12.0 points per game, 6.4 rebounds per game and 1.5 steals per game. He is second in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference in three-point makes with 33 so far.

Akot has bumped his season scoring average up to 10.5 points per game. Akot has scored in double-figures in three of the last four games for Cloud County, averaging 14.5 points per game during that span.

Freshman guard Syncere Burnette averages 9.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. Burnette is shooting 45.2 percent from three-point range with 19 treys on the season, which ranks as the fifth best three-point shooting percentage in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference.

Other T-Bird regulars include sophomore guard Fallou Koite (5.4 ppg, 1.9 rpg), freshman forward Vuk Zarubica (3.8 ppg, 4.4 rpg), freshman guard Da'Ron Waller (3.6 ppg, 40.0 percent FG), sophomore guard Roy Aviv (3.3 ppg, 2.2 rpg), Johnson (2.6 ppg, 58.3 percent FG), freshman forward Takeo Moore (2.1 ppg, 2.1 rpg), and freshman guard Dejuan Graise (1.8 ppg, 46.2 percent FG).