CONCORDIA, Kan. – Putting together a second-straight complete and dominant effort against a lesser opponent, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team led for 39:47 of their game with visiting Pratt Community College and saw their lead in double-digits for nearly 34 minutes of the game as part of 79-55 win inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday, February 21st.
Picking up a third-straight win and improving to 19-8 overall in the process, Cloud County is now 14-7 in the KJCCC while dropping the Beavers to 8-18 overall and 5-15 in the KJCCC with CCCC sweeping the regular season series.
Scoring the first eight points of the game with four different players scoring the first 11 T-Bird points in the game, Cloud County quickly jumped out to a 10-point advantage at 14-4 with 16:11 remaining and going back up double-digits three minutes later after giving up a 6-2 spurt to PCC. Following an
Emmanuel Manyuon layup to go up 21-10 with 13:26 remaining in the first half, CCCC used an 11-2 run to push their lead to 20 at 32-12 with 7:35 remaining before halftime as the T-Birds were essentially scoring at will and having their way with an outmatched Beaver squad. The rest of the first half saw Pratt close to within 14 at 38-24 with 2:05 left in the half before seeing six straight points by Cloud County allow the T-Birds to go back up 20 before the final field goal of the first half coming on the Beaver end of the court with a Bubba Ross fast break field goal in the final 30 seconds to make it a 44-26 game at the half.
Trading made three-point field goals back-and-forth to begin the second half, Cloud County followed up with a 10-2 run to go up 26 at 57-31 at the midway point of the period and continuing to control things despite a slower offensive tempo leading to more limited opportunities scoring. With the large advantage in favor of the T-Birds, Cloud County was able to rotate players in and out to keep bodies fresh and focus on the defensive end as Pratt did not crack the 40-point mark until the 6:08 mark of the second half with the deficit never dropping below 20 over the final 15 minutes of the game with CCCC leading by as many as 30 and eventually settling for a 24-point win.
Finishing just one field goal shy of hitting over 50 percent of their shots on the night, Cloud County finished with a 49.2 percent (29-of-59) field goal percentage and hit 38.5 percent (10-of-26) of their three-point attempts while going 11-for-14 (78.6 percent) from the charity stripe. Pratt was able to finish the game with a 42.6 percent (20-of-47) field goal percentage but were hurt by 19 turnovers which led to 22 points for Cloud County as the T-Birds held a 37-26 advantage in rebounds and a 13-4 advantage in second-chance points.
A career night for
Isaiah Sy came with a game-high 29 points and five rebounds following a second-straight start while seeing
Cav Carlgren finish with 15 points on five-of-nine shooting. Adding 12 points and nine rebounds was
Cheikh Sow while Manyuon had 13 points off the bench with four other T-Birds accounting for the remaining 10 points. Pratt had two players reach double-figures with Kayvontay Williams and Joseph Opareke both finishing with 10 points.
What's Next?
A chance to get rested and healthy for an important three-game stretch to close out the regular season will see Cloud County have the KJCCC bye on Saturday which means the T-Birds will have a full week between games. Up next for CCCC is a trip to Arkansas City, Kansas to take on the currently number-12 ranked Cowley Community College Tigers who sport a 23-4 overall record and 18-3 mark in the KJCCC following a 95-48 dismantling of Independence on Wednesday night. Cowley will head to Pratt on Saturday prior to their game with the T-Birds, which will be their final home game of the regular season.
