Men's Basketball | 1/14/2025 4:46:00 PM

Box Score The Cloud County Community College men's basketball team suffered a road Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference loss to Garden City, 85-73, on Monday, January 13.

The T-Birds had a solid start, taking a 19-14 lead on a made three-pointer by freshman guard Syncere Burnette midway through the first half. Cloud County made 5-of-9 (55.6 percent) from three-point range in the opening half of action. Burnette had two treys and led the T-Birds with 10 first-half points. Cloud County extended its lead to double-digits on a dunk by sophomore Fallou Koite with 1:44 remaining in the half. The Broncbusters scored in the paint in the closing seconds, trimming Cloud County's lead to nine points at 43-34 at the break.

Garden City, however, picked things up after that. The Broncbusters opened the second half on a 14-3 run, taking the lead on a three-pointer by freshman guard Finn Eriksson at the 15:35 mark. Sophomore forward Isaiah Dixon added a fast break basket and sophomore guard Jace Steinmetz drilled a three-pointer to push Garden City's lead to 53-46.

Cloud County was held to three made field-goals through the first ten minutes of the second half.

Garden City sophomore guard Emmanuel Manyuon buried a triple to give the Broncbusters a ten point advantage at 61-51 midway through the half.

The T-Birds pieced together a 9-2 run over the next five minutes to trail 63-60 with 5:06 to go.

Following a pair of free-throws from Garden City sophomore guard Josiah Sabino, Burnette connected on his third three-pointer of the afternoon to make it 65-63 with 4:41 left to play.

Garden City answered quickly with a 12-5 run, including four points from Sabino, three-pointers from Eriksson and Steinmetz, and a jumper by Manyuon, to make it a nine point game at 77-68 with 1:33 remaining. Eriksson, Manyuon, Sabino and Steinmetz all made critical free-throws down the stretch as the Broncbusters went 8-of-8 from the free-throw line over the final minute and seven seconds to seal the win.

Manyuon led all scorers with 20 points. Eriksson poured in 17 points. Sabino finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, while Steinmetz had 11 points and four rebounds.

Burnette and redshirt freshman guard Keyon Garrett-Miller led the way for Cloud County with 16 points each. Burnette also had five assists, four steals and four rebounds. Garrett-Miller had four assists and four rebounds. Freshman guard Dejuan Graise got into double-figures with a season-high 10 points and five rebounds. Freshman Elidjah Savane added eight points and a team-high seven rebounds.

The T-Birds have lost six in a row and seven of their last eight games to sit at 9-7 overall and 3-7 in KJCCC play. Cloud County now heads into a road contest at No. 11 Butler Community College on Wednesday, January 15 at 7:30 pm. The Butler Grizzlies are 13-3 on the season and 8-2 in KJCCC action. Butler has won 12 of its last 14 meetings against the T-Birds, including a 77-69 victory over Cloud County in last year's NJCAA Region 6 Tournament quarterfinals.