INDEPENDENCE - A strong opening 20 minutes of play leading to an 11-point halftime lead by the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would wind up going to waste as host Independence Community College would outscore CCCC by a 50-36 margin in the second half to hand the T-Birds a 78-75 loss inside the ICC Gymnasium in Independence Saturday.
Following Saturday's defeat, Cloud County is now 9-11 overall and 5-9 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Independence improves to 9-12 overall and 6-9 in the KJCCC while managing to split the season series with the T-Birds.
A back-and-forth battle early on would see ICC jump out to a quick 4-0 lead before seeing the T-Birds respond with seven of the next nine points as a Malang Athian layup with 15:25 left in the first half would give CCCC their first lead of the game at 7-6. Back-to-back buckets from the Pirates would allow Independence to match their early lead of four points but once again Cloud County would have a response as DeMarco Clayton would score four straight of his own and help spark a 10-3 CCCC run that would be capped off by a Justin Graham three-point play with 9:52 left in the opening period.
Holding a 17-14 lead, Cloud County would see ICC tie things up on a triple before using another spurt to score seven of the next eight to build a six-point lead at 24-18 that would remain a two-possession lead for the next four minutes of game action. Looking to extend their lead in the final 4:39 of the first half, Cloud County would use a Corey Sawyer Jr. triple to kick off an 11-2 run to end the first half which would turn a 30-26 lead into a 39-28 halftime advantage for the T-Birds.
Wasting no time to start the second half, aggressive play from Cloud County would lead to an early foul and two made free throws by Graham to give CCCC their largest lead of the game at 41-28 as the double-digit lead would be in play for the first five minutes of the second half. With the score sitting at a 50-40 T-Bird advantage, Independence would use a Jordan Clark layup to start a 5-1 spurt with all five points coming from Clark to cut the lead down to six in a span of 50 seconds. The Cloud County lead would continue to be cut into by the Pirates as ICC would chip away little by little and eventually get within a point at 53-52 with 12:40 remaining as momentum would begin to shift towards the home team.
A Nate Duckworth layup would allow Cloud County to put their lead back out at three momentarily as Independence would respond with eight straight points to reclaim the lead and go up 60-55 with 9:47 left in the game as a once 13-point lead would now be a deficit for the T-Birds. Duckworth and Sawyer Jr. would manage to score 10 of the next 12 points in the game as the CCCC defense would start to crack down and hold ICC without a field goal for a span of nearly four minutes which would allow Cloud County to retake the lead at 65-52 with 6:49 remaining.
Things would remain close for the remainder of the contest as neither team would be able to hold a lead of more than four in the final five minutes of action with four lead changes taking place. Duckworth would give the T-Birds their final lead of the game on a made layup with 3:43 left to make it a 71-70 contest as the Pirates would hit a go-ahead three out of a timeout that would be called with 2:29 left in the contest. Sawyer Jr. would refuse to be turned away on the ensuing possession, driving to the hoop and converting a layup to tie things up one final time at 73-73 as neither team would go down easily. ICC would respond with a layup of their own to re-take the lead with 1:31 remaining as possessions would begin to become limited.
Following a missed layup on their next offensive possession, Cloud County would foul Clark with 53 seconds left where he would connect on one of two free throws to make it a three-point contest. CCCC would then come up empty again on their next possession with a missed game-tying three as Independence would grab the defensive rebound with CCCC now in a must-foul situation. Another split at the free-throw line would allow the Pirates to push their lead to two possessions as the T-Birds would have to score on their next possession to have a chance. Fouled on a drive to the hoop would be Sawyer Jr. where he would manage to connect on both free throws and bring CCCC back within two at 77-75 with 14 seconds left as Cloud County would foul and attempt to extend the game once more. After missing the first free-throw, Pirate Rodney Munson would hit on his second attempt to put ICC up three but give Cloud County a chance at a potential game-tying three on the final possession. After using a timeout to try and draw up a play, CCCC would turn to freshman Joe Kearney who would put up a contested three that would hit off the rim and fall into the hands of an Independence player and allow the Pirates to escape with the win.
Outscored 18-4 in second-chance points, Cloud County would see Independence hold a 36-28 advantage in the rebounding margin as 14 offensive rebounds would prove to be extremely costly. CCCC would outscore the Pirates 14-13 in points off turnovers as each team would cough the ball up 10 times and hit six threes in the contest.
Leading the T-Birds for the second-straight game would be Sawyer Jr. with a game-high 21 points to go along with six rebounds while Duckworth would score 18 points with 10 of his points coming in the second half. No other CCCC player would reach double-figures as Kearney would be the next closest with nine total points. Clark and Ty Butner would lead Independence in scoring as each would score 18 points and combine to finish 11-of-12 from the free-throw line.
What's next?
Cloud County will have their second-bye of the season which will allow the T-Birds to have a full week to prepare for Seward County Community College who will come to Concordia to take on CCCC at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The T-Birds will be looking to avenge a 62-56 loss to the Saints that occurred back on Dec. 1, and will be taking on an SCCC team that has lost five of their last six games. Seward County fell by a score of 84-54 at number 23 Colby on Sunday afternoon and will host number six Dodge City on Wednesday night before taking on the T-Birds.
Jan 24, 2022
11-point halftime lead not enough to push CCCC past Pirates for win
Posted Jan 24, 2022 9:02 PM