HUTCHINSON, Kan. – Limited to just one point in the opening three minutes of play and falling into an 8-1 hole led to a 42-22 halftime deficit for the Cloud County men's basketball team that proved too large to overcome in a 75-56 road loss to number-15 ranked Hutchinson Community College inside the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, Kansas on Saturday, February 10th.
Falling to 16-8 on the season, six of Cloud County's eight losses have now come to teams ranked inside the NJCAA Division I Top 25 while seeing their Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference record move to 11-7. Hutchinson meanwhile improves to 20-3 overall and 15-2 in the KJCCC to keep pace among the top of the league and just one game back of first place in the Jayhawk Conference.
CCCC did not see their first made field goal until two and a half minutes into the game as Hutchinson hit on each of their first three field goal attempts including two from beyond the arc to jump out to a seven-point advantage that grew to nine with 14:08 left in the first half at 14-5. Trying to keep the tempo from favoring the Blue Dragons, Cloud County did their best to slow things down after breaking the full-court pressure seen off made HCC baskets but struggled to hit on their shot attempts which allowed Hutchinson to go on a 7-0 run to go up 21-7 with 12:03 left in the first half. Back-to-back triples from
Abdoulaye Fall brought CCCC back within eight at 21-13 briefly as the Blue Dragons responded with 11 of the next 13 points that pushed their lead out to 32-15 with just over seven minutes left before halftime. The HCC lead continued to grow with the deficit for Cloud County reaching 20 at 38-18 and eventually 21 at 40-19 with 56 seconds left as the T-Birds scored three of the final five points of the half to trail by 20 at the break.
Matching HCC in scoring 5-5 throughout the first three minutes of game action to begin the second half, Cloud County saw the deficit grow to 23 before getting a pair of
Ja'ron Briggs Jr. free throws to start a 12-2 run that turned a seemingly massive deficit down to an attainable 13 at 52-39 with 12:43 remaining after outscoring the Blue Dragons 17-10 to begin the second period. Continuing the run with a
Kyle McElroy layup and Briggs Jr. layup to get within single digits for the first time since the midway point of the first half, CCCC saw Hutchinson respond with a transition three off a turnover to go back up 12 and swing the momentum back in favor of the home squad. With the Blue Dragon lead back at double-digits, Hutchinson began to wear down Cloud County and grow their lead back out to 17 at 65-48 with just over six minutes remaining and reclaiming a 20-point advantage with 4:39 left in the game. The HCC advantage reached as many as 24 with just over three minutes remaining before a 7-2 run to close out the game by Cloud County with the deficit never dropping below 19 for the T-Birds.
Making just six field goals in the first half and shooting 27.6 percent (16-of-58) from the field in the game, Cloud County was also limited to a five-of-21 (23.8 percent) outing from three and 19-of-29 (65.5 percent) effort from the free throw line while seeing Hutchinson finish just under 50 percent from the floor by going 24-of-49 (49.0 percent) from the field and seven-of-17 (41.2 percent) from beyond the arc. A commanding 36-8 advantage in bench points for the Blue Dragons and a 22-12 advantage in points off turnovers proved costly towards CCCC as the T-Birds outscored HCC 18-10 in second-chance points. Rebounding was deadlocked for the contest at 36-36 with Cloud County recording 20 offensive rebounds to 10 for Hutchinson with the Blue Dragons outscoring CCCC 9-8 in fast break points.
Individually, Briggs scored a team-best 15 points with nine points coming from the free throw line while
Cheikh Sow had his second-straight double-double by scoring 12 points and grabbing a team-high 14 rebounds. Fall also reached double figures for the T-Birds by scoring 11 points as five other players for Cloud County combined for the remaining 18 points. Hutchinson got a game-high 19 points from Dallas Whitney off the bench and a 14-point, 16-rebound effort from Valentino Simon to lead HCC on the day.
What's Next?
Cloud County will look to bounce back with an 8 PM home contest on Wednesday, February 14th against a surging Colby Community College team that has won three of their past four games. Colby's most recent outing was an 82-64 home win over Pratt on Saturday afternoon as the Trojans improved to 9-14 overall and 5-12 in the KJCCC. Earlier this season against Colby, Cloud County earned a 73-53 road win in Colby after having four players finish in double-figures.
