CONCORDIA, Kan. – The grind of playing a 24-game schedule within the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference showed itself in full force on Wednesday evening for the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team as the T-Birds overcame a 12-point first-half deficit to force overtime and come away with a 75-72 home victory over Colby Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on February 14th.
The victory comes despite leading for less than six total minutes of game time as CCCC was forced to play from behind for much of the evening to pick up their 17th win of the year and improve to 17-8 overall and 12-7 in the KJCCC. Colby, which entered the game having won three of its past four outings, falls to 9-14 overall and 5-13 in the KJCCC as Cloud County picks up a regular season sweep of the Trojans.
Three-point shooting for both teams highlighted the opening four minutes of action as both teams traded made treys for their first made field goals as part of five made shots from beyond the arc over the first 4:24 to put Colby up 11-6 over the T-Birds. Two more made threes by Colby allowed the Trojans to push their lead to double-digits as CCCC was limited to just six points in the opening seven minutes of action after starting the game two-of-10 from the field and zero-for-two from the free throw line. Breaking a nearly six-minute scoring drought with a made
Ian Lavalaye layup to get back within single-digits, Cloud County saw Colby respond with three-straight points of their own to claim the largest lead of the game at 20-8 with 10:04 remaining in the first half as the T-Birds could not buy a bucket through the midway point of the first period.
After seeing
Cheikh Sow find an open
Isaiah Sy for a made triple to get back in the scoring column, CCCC found a way to go on a 7-0 run to get back within five at 20-15 as part of a larger 11-2 run that brought the T-Birds back within three at 22-19 on a fast break dunk by
Ja'ron Briggs Jr. As quickly as Cloud County managed to cut into the double-digit deficit did CCCC see Colby respond by scoring eight of the next 10 points with all eight Trojan points coming at the free throw line to get things back to a nine-point deficit for the T-Birds with less than a minute remaining in the opening period. The final four points of the half were scored by Cloud County with Briggs Jr. connecting on two free throws before seeing CCCC force a turnover and managing to get a
Kyle McElroy layup in the final seconds to go into the locker room down 30-25.
Scoring once again became problematic for Cloud County at the start of the second half as Colby opened the period by scoring nine of the first 12 points to go back up double-digits at 39-28 as just one made field goal by the T-Birds was had in the first four minutes of action. Breaking yet another scoring drought with a made Sow triple, CCCC saw the Thies, Senegal native begin to take over with another made three on the ensuing offensive possession for the T-Birds to keep Colby from breaking the game open. After seeing the deficit reach double-digits at 44-34 with 13:27 remaining in regulation, Cloud County managed to go on a 7-2 run to get back within five over the next 2:16 of play with fouls trouble starting to become a factor for both teams heading into the back end of the second half.
Colby continued to find ways to respond by scoring the next five points and getting their lead back out to 10 at 51-41 with 9:40 left in regulation as the Trojans seemingly had an answer each time that CCCC threatened to close the gap. A Sow three-point play with 8:50 left in the half helped Cloud County go on what became a 9-0 run to pull back within one for the first time since the first half as Colby went scoreless for nearly five minutes while the T-Birds made their run. Ending the CCCC rally by connecting on a pair of made free throws, Colby scored six of the next eight points to go back up five at 57-52 with 2:50 remaining thanks in part to free throw shooting favoring the Trojans throughout the contest.
Needing to make another push to try and close the gap one last time, Cloud County scored the next three points of the contest at the charity stripe before getting a defensive rebound on a missed Colby shot to find Sy open for his fourth made three of the game to put the T-Birds up 58-57. After facing their first deficit since the 6-3 mark early in the first half, Colby responded with a made bucket to reclaim the lead at 59-58 with 1:30 left in regulation and the game still to be decided. Not wasting any time on their next possession, Cloud County saw
Emmanuel Manyuon drive to the hoop and score a layup to put CCCC back out in front 60-59 which was followed by a T-Bird timeout to try and set up their defense. The timeout worked out as Colby turned the ball over with 55 seconds remaining which allowed CCCC to burn off 24 seconds of game action before coming up empty on a Sow layup attempt with the Trojans grabbing the defensive rebound and using their final timeout of regulation to try and draw up a play.
After using up 19 seconds of the remaining game clock, Colby's Raphael Nagau-Trouart drove to the hole where he was met by Sy as a defensive foul was called following a meeting by all three officials as one had a block call, and one of the other two officials calling a player control foul with Sy having been ruled to have been in the restricted area at the time of the foul to create two free throw attempts for the Trojans. After making the first foul shot, the second was missed with CCCC's Briggs Jr. coming up with the rebound and racing down the court to try and get off a potential game-winning shot. Unfortunately, a turnover occurred on the offensive end for the T-Birds with six seconds remaining to give the ball back to Colby where the CCCC defense stepped up and forced a turnover of their own with a desperation heave by Manyuon ending up off the mark to send things to a five-minute extra session.
In what was Colby's first overtime contest of the season and the second of the year for Cloud County, the T-Birds missed on each of their first two shot attempts in the extra period but managed to grab offensive rebounds off both shots and find Sy for a go-ahead triple with 4:40 left in the game as CCCC went up 63-60 on their 10th made three of the game. Colby opted to respond with a driving layup to get back within one at 63-62 and was followed by a Manyuon layup to once again make it a three-point advantage in favor of the T-Birds before a D'Necco Rucker triple for the Trojans that knotted things up at 65-65.
Another Manyuon layup was responded to by a layup from Colby on their next offensive possession before seeing a turnover lead to a go-ahead triple for Colby with 2:33 remaining as the Trojans managed to take their first lead of the extra period. Splitting a pair of free throws following a foul by Rucker to get back within two, Cloud County trailed 70-68 before forcing a turnover with Manyuon stepping in the lane of a pass across the paint which led to another Trojan foul to send Briggs Jr. to the free throw line where he connected on both attempts. Tied back up at 70-70, Colby reclaimed the lead on a go-ahead field goal with 1:19 remaining before seeing Briggs Jr. have an answer of his own with a shot in the paint with 1:08 remaining as both teams were leaving everything they had on the court. One final turnover by Colby led to a steal for Sow with 39 seconds left and a chance at a go-ahead bucket for the T-Birds with Briggs Jr. finding Manyuon for a layup with 17 seconds left to grab a 74-72 lead. A missed three-point attempt by the Trojans with six seconds left was rebounded by Manyuon forcing Colby to foul with just 0.7 seconds left on the clock as the Austin, Minnesota native went one-of-two at the line to make things a three-point game. One final attempt to tie the game by Colby was off the mark as time expired, allowing CCCC to escape with just their second win of the year by five points or less.
Despite seeing Colby hit on 46.0 percent (23-of-50) of their field goal attempts and eight-of-22 (36.4 percent) from three, it was a strong close by Cloud County that allowed the T-Birds to shoot 62.5 percent (five-of-eight) from the floor in overtime to finish the game with a 36.5 percent (23-of-63) field goal percentage and 10-for-32 (31.3 percent) effort from beyond the arc. An off night at the charity stripe saw CCCC go 19-for-33 (57.6 percent) from the free throw line which forced the T-Birds to rely on 20 Colby turnovers leading to 18 points for Cloud County to go along with a 19-7 advantage in second-chance points and 26-18 advantage in points in the paint.
Finishing two assists shy of a triple-double, Briggs Jr. played a key role in the victory after scoring 15 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and dishing out eight assists while Sow scored a team-high 17 points and had four steals. Sy (15) and Manyuon (14) each reached double-figures off the bench with all eight T-Birds who saw action finding their way into the scoring column as CCCC finished with 17 assists on 23 made field goals. The Colby starting five did a majority of their damage on Wednesday evening with Rucker scoring a game-high 24 as one of four starters in double-figures with the starting five accounting for 68 of the 72 Trojan points.
What's Next?
Cloud County will make one of their longest remaining road trip of the season on Saturday, February 17th with a 4 PM contest at Independence Community College awaiting the T-Birds. Independence was at Pratt on Wednesday evening, falling 103-72 to the Beavers. ICC has lost 23 consecutive games after winning their season opener and currently sits at 1-23 overall and 0-18 in the KJCCC.
