CONCORDIA – A 14-7 deficit in points off turnovers and 19-5 deficit in bench points would ultimately be the difference on Wednesday night as the Cloud County men's basketball team would be the difference as the Cloud County men's basketball team would fall by a final score of 82-72 to Independence Community College inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium.
Dropping their fifth straight, Cloud County is now 4-8 overall and 2-8 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Pirates bounce back from a 79-74 home loss to Butler in their last outing to improve to 9-4 overall and 7-4 in the KJCCC.
With Independence wanting to push the pace early on and play at a fast tempo, Cloud County would turn the Pirate game plan on its side in the opening minutes of the contest as the T-Birds would jump out to an 8-2 lead on a Detavius Frierson layup and free throw. The offensive struggles for Indy wouldn't last long however as ICC would respond by scoring 10 of the next 12 to take a 12-10 lead on CCCC with just over 12 minutes remaining in the first half.
As Independence would start to see shots fall, the fast-paced action would begin to pick up even more as both teams would look to push the issue and get the ball into the frontcourt and create open shots. The two-point Independence lead would grow to seven at 21-14 as things would reach the first-half media timeout with just over nine minutes left before halftime as Cloud County would start to see offensive struggles of their own start to creep in.
Out of the timeout, a two-minute scoring drought for both teams would take place before an Independence dunk would give the Pirates their largest lead of the half at 23-14 before seeing the T-Birds finally start to find some rhythm again. A 13-4 Cloud County run would be capped off by an Ibrahim Drame layup to tie things at 27-27 with 3:46 remaining before halftime as CCCC would once again find themselves back in the game.
Despite getting back to even with just under four minutes before intermission, Cloud County would not reclaim the lead until 10 seconds left in the half as Dyelan reed would find Drame for a layup to put CCCC up 34-33. Independence would get a layup and free throw in the final seconds however as the Pirates would cling onto a 35-33 lead at the break.
In the second half, Cloud County would manage to keep within striking distance of Indy in the opening minutes of the period before finally making a move five minutes into the half. Trailing 46-40, the T-Birds would get layups from Drame and Frierson to get within two as part of an 8-0 spurt in the span of 1:36 to take the lead once again at 48-46. Independence would have a response however by scoring the next six points and 14 of the next 16 to take their first double-digit lead of the contest with 10:22 remaining in the game.
Cloud County would refuse to go away however as CCCC would battle their back yet again over the course of the next five minutes to slowly cut into the Pirate lead and eventually get within one at 69-68 on a Malang Athian triple with 4:53 left in the second. A scoring drought for Cloud County in the final minutes however would allow ICC to score the next 13 points and put the game out of reach in the final minute as CCCC would score the final four points to see the final deficit sit at 10.
Holding a 49-41 advantage in rebounds and 18-14 advantage in fast break points, turnovers would be an issue for the T-Birds as CCCC would cough up the ball 18 times with numerous unforced errors leading to the turnovers. For the game, Cloud County would shoot 38.9 percent (29-of-74) from the field and go eight-of-25 (30 percent) from three while shooting just eight total free throws (six-of-eight, 75 percent).
CCCC would see three players finish in double-figures on the night as Drame would lead the way with a 23-point, 10-rebound outing while playing 36 in the game. Savian Edwards (15 points) and Dyelan Reed (13 points) would both join Drame in double-figures while Athian would score nine. Tim Dagler of Independence would lead all scorers with 25 in the contest as the Pirates would have four players reach the double-digit point mark.
What's next?
Cloud County will seek their first road victory of the season this weekend as the T-Birds will take on Neosho Community College in a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday. The Panthers were victim to a 96-79 road loss at Butler on Wednesday night and have dropped three of their last four games.
--cloudtbirds.com--