Men's Basketball | 1/11/2025 8:33:00 PM

Box Score The Cloud County Community College men's basketball team suffered an 85-60 loss to No. 6 Cowley College in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference action on Saturday, January 11 in Arley Bryant Gymnasium.

With the loss, the T-Birds fall to 9-6 overall and 3-6 in KJCCC play. Cloud County has now lost five straight, dating back to December 4. Meanwhile, the Cowley Tigers have improved to 15-2 overall and 10-1 in conference action.

Twelve different players scored for the Tigers, with five players reaching double-figures. Sophomore guard Marcus Zeigler led Cowley with 13 points on 6-of-12 (50.0 percent) shooting. He also tallied four steals, three assists and two rebounds. Freshman CJ Majors and sophomore Emarquis Jones had 11 points each. Sophomore Shamarrie Hugie recorded a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds, while freshman Marcus Whitlock Jr. also had 10 points.

Sophomore Elidjah Savane finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds to lead the way for Cloud County. Savane now has five double-double performances on the season and has scored in double digits 13 times this season, including 11 games in a row. Freshman guard Kuel Akot registered 16 points after shooting 4-of-7 (57.1 percent) from three-point range. Redshirt freshman Keyon Garrett-Miller and freshmen Syncere Burnette and Dejuan Graise collected eight points each in the loss.

Cloud County scored the first two points to begin the game before Cowley went on a 20-0 run to take a 22-2 lead with 13:17 left in the first half. The T-Birds responded with a 14-5 run over the next seven minutes to trail 27-16 with 6:16 left before the break. Cowley scored seven consecutive points and 12 of the next 15 points to expand its lead to 39-19 with 1:45 remaining in the half. A late layup by Savane made it 39-21 at the intermission.

The Tigers opened the second half on a 9-5 run to increase their lead to 48-26 on a three-pointer by Whitlock, Jr. with 16:46 remaining in the game. Baskets by Savane and Garrett-Miller and a free-throw by Burnette cut the lead to 48-31 at the 15:20 mark of the second half. Cowley once again responded with an 8-2 run over the next four minutes to increase its lead to 23 points at 56-33 following a three-pointer by sophomore wing Dallas Whitney. Cloud County attempted to stage a late comeback, cutting the deficit to 12 points at 71-59 on a basket in the paint by Savane at the 3:06 mark. The T-Birds only managed six more points the rest of the way and Cowley hung on for the 85-60 win.

The Tigers finished the game shooting 31-of-64 (48.4 percent) from the floor and 6-of-16 (37.5 percent) from behind the arc. In comparison, Cloud County shot 24-of-59 (40.7 percent) from the field and 8-of-25 (32.0 percent) from three-point range. The Tigers also outrebounded the T-Birds by a 41-31 margin.

Cloud County sophomore Matthew Garber recorded six points and five rebounds, while sophomore Fallou Koite added two points.
 
The T-Birds return to action on Monday, January 13 when they travel to Garden City, Kansas to face the Garden City Broncbusters at 4 pm. Garden City has won three of its last five meetings with Cloud County. Last season, Cloud County and Garden City split the season series, with each team winning on its home court.