Men's Basketball | 12/7/2024 7:16:00 PM

Box Score The Cloud County Community College men's basketball team has dropped back-to-back games for the first time this season, falling to the Independence Pirates in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play, 79-66, on Saturday, December 7.

After falling behind by four points early in the contest, Cloud County collected six straight points from redshirt freshman guard Keyon Garrett-Miller to take a five point advantage at 15-10 with 13:30 left in the first half. Independence responded with a 7-0 run ending on a Ty Holdman three-pointer to capture the lead again at 17-15. The Pirates kept the T-Birds off the offensive glass in the first half while limiting Cloud County to 38.7 percent shooting from the floor, including a 2-of-7 (28.6 percent) showing from behind the arc. Independence led by as many as eight points at three separate intervals. A late three-pointer by freshman Amare Johnson followed by free-throws by Johnson and freshman Kuel Akot allowed Cloud County to trim Independence's lead down to three points at 39-36 at halftime.

Cloud County opened the second-half with a basket in the paint by freshman Elidjah Savane, drawing the T-Birds back to within one point at 39-38. Independence quickly put together an 11-2 run, capped off by a three-pointer by Chiante Tramble, to grab the game's first double-digit lead at 50-40 with 14:46 to go. Cloud County went on a 5-2 run to claw back to within seven points, but the Pirates never surrendered its lead. Independence was able to widen its advantage out to as many as 16 points and maintained a double-digit lead throughout the final 11 minutes to hand Cloud County the 79-66 loss.

Independence shot the ball well, hitting 31-of-62 shots for 50.0 percent. The Pirates collected 48 points in the paint compared to 38 points for the T-Birds. Independence also outrebounded Cloud County, 48-38.

Cloud County finished the game shooting just 33.8 percent from the field, including just 13.3 percent from three-point range. The T-Birds were 0-of-8 from behind the arc in the second half.

Cloud County had two players score in double-figures, led by Garrett-Miller who had 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Garrett-Miller went 6-of-9 from the free-throw line. Savane tacked on 14 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. Akot helped out with eight points and four rebounds. Cloud County collected 20 points off the bench, led by freshman Da'Ron Waller with seven points, followed by freshman Syncere Burnette with six, Johnson with five and freshman Dejuan Graise with two. Redshirt freshman Matthew Garber and sophomore Fallou Koite also had two points each.

The Cloud County men's basketball team next heads to Coffeyville, Kansas for a conference matchup against the Coffeyville Red Ravens on Wednesday, December 11. Tipoff against the Red Ravens is set for 7:30 pm.