INDEPENDENCE, Kan. – After needing overtime to earn a home win on Wednesday night, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team took no chances in finishing off a road win in regulation by eclipsing the century mark for the second time this season and shooting 64.9 percent from the floor to down host Independence Community College by a score of 110-66 inside the ICC Gymnasium in Independence, Kansas on Saturday, February 17th.
Running their record to 18-8 overall, Cloud County moves to 13-7 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference with the win after scoring 57 points in the opening half before following things up with a 53-point second-half effort. Independence remains unable to end what has become a 24-game losing streak to fall to 1-24 overall and 0-19 with the defeat as the Pirates will be eliminated from postseason contention with one more loss in their final five games of the season.
A run midway through the opening period is what proved to be the catalyst towards the victory as the first seven minutes of action saw ties at 5-5, 7-7, 12-12, and 15-15 before a 12-3 CCCC run to go up 27-18 with 8:49 left before halftime. The T-Birds turned things up a notch on the offensive end the rest of the opening period by outscoring ICC 30-14 while shooting 71.4 percent (20-of-28) from the field in the first half and eight-of-14 (57.1 percent) from three as three different players for Cloud County (
Cheikh Sow,
Emmanuel Manyuon, and
Cav Carlgren) all reached double-figure scoring in the first half. Similar numbers were put up by CCCC in the second half as the T-Birds cooled off slightly in the final minutes to shoot 58.6 percent (17-of-29) from the field in the final 20 minutes of action while going seven-of-13 (53.8 percent) from three in addition to outrebounding the Pirates 30-16 in the second and holding Independence to a 23.7 percent field goal percentage in the half.
For the game, Cloud County finished with their second-highest field goal percentage of the year and had their best outing of the season from three with 15 makes to eclipse a previous high of 11 against Dodge City back in December as the T-Birds held a 23-12 advantage in points off turnovers and 12-0 advantage in fast break points. Points in the paint (42-8) and rebounding (43-30) were also in favor of CCCC despite allowing a 9-4 advantage to Independence in second-chance points with 44 of Cloud County's points coming from bench players.
Four starters reached double-figures for the T-Birds with five players total scoring at least 11 points in the game for CCCC with Manyuon notching a game-high 24 points on eight-of-11 shooting while finishing one rebound shy of a double-double.
Ja'ron Briggs Jr. finished with 11 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds to come up three rebounds short of an elusive triple-double while
Isaiah Sy (21), Sow (17), and Carlgren (15) combined went 19-for-25 from the field while scoring 53 points as a trio. Independence had three players reach double-figures and was led by a team-best 19 from Cory Curtis Jr.
What's Next?
With a winning record in KJCCC secured with Saturday's win, Cloud County will look for a third-straight victory and a fifth regular season sweep of a conference foe on Wednesday, February 21st when Pratt Community College visits Arley Bryant Gymnasium for an 8 PM contest. The Beavers have won two straight games including a 94-71 home win over McPherson College JV this past Friday but have gone 2-10 in games away from their home court this season. Cloud County earned an 80-49 road victory over the Beavers back on January 6th as PCC has gone 3-9 overall since playing the T-Birds.
