#3 Indian Hills Hands Cloud County Men's Basketball Team a 79-68 Road Defeat
Despite having four players in double-figures while hitting 13 shots from beyond the arc, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would find themselves on the wrong end of a 79-68 road defeat to number-three nationally-ranked Indian Hills Community College inside the Hellyer Center in Ottumwa, Iowa on night one of the RV & Power Sport Classic on Friday, November 4th.
Falling to 0-2 on the season, Cloud County will seek their first win in their third and final game of the opening week of the season tomorrow while Indian Hills remains unbeaten on the year at 2-0 with both wins coming against foes from the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference.
Indian Hills would get on the board before the opening tip as an administrative pre-game technical foul would be issued to Cloud County would allow the Warriors to take a 1-0 lead before seeing the T-Birds score five of the next eight points with Joe Kearney and Corey Sawyer Jr. staking CCCC to leads of 2-1 and 5-4 in the early going. Following the triple by Sawyer Jr. with 16:19 left in the first half, IHCC would manage to score the six points while holding the T-Birds scoreless for nearly three minutes to double up CCCC at 10-5, but an Andre Gray II trey would not only break the scoring drought but once again get Cloud County back within one possession near the midway point of the opening period.
Offensively, the T-Birds would not be able to turn the Gray triple into additional scoring as Indian Hills would manage to go on a 9-1 run with three made shots from beyond the arc while conceding just one free throw to take their first double-digit lead of the contest at 19-9. The lead for the Warriors would reach 13 on the next offensive possession for IHCC with yet another made three before the T-Birds would finally manage to break the run by having Kearney respond with two of his own made shots from deep to cut the lead down to seven with 7:18 left in the first half. Things would then slow down considerably on the offensive front as Cloud County would get within five at 25-20 before managing to score just two points in the final five-plus minutes of action in the half as Indian Hills would extend their lead back out to eight at 30-22 heading into halftime.
Out of the intermission break, IHCC would manage to add to their lead with a made three to go back up double-digits at 33-22 as the T-Birds would need a response to try and keep things from getting out of reach early in the second half. A layup and free throw from sophomore Justin Graham would prove to be a big spark to making a run happen as the T-Birds would go on a 13-2 run that would be capped off with a Graham triple that would knot things up at 35-35 to see the first tie since before tip-off. Quick to grab momentum back however would be Indian Hills as the Warriors would connect on an Eddiean Tirado triple to go back up three as IHCC would score the next seven points to reclaim a three-possession lead with just under 13 minutes left in the contest.
Cloud County would slowly chip away at the Warrior lead over the next three-plus minutes of action as the seven-point deficit would be brought all the way down to one at 46-45 following a Malang Athian layup with 9:20 remaining in the contest as the T-Birds would continue to put pressure on IHCC. The one-possession game would continue over the next three minutes of action until back-to-back threes from Indian Hills would turn a two-point contest into an eight-point game as the Warriors would wind up going on a 15-4 run to match their largest lead of the contest at 68-55 with just 3:20 remaining. Needing to come up with an answer and quickly, Cloud County would get another three from Graham to cut the deficit to 10, but the Warriors would get a dunk as a response following empty possessions from both teams to put the lead at 12. Down the stretch in the final two minutes of action, CCCC would get no closer than eight as time would prove to be the biggest factor in keeping the T-Birds from mounting a comeback along with Indian Hills managing to hit eight of their final 10 free throws in the final 1:02 of the game.
Shooting just 25.81 percent (eight-of-31) from the floor in the first half, CCCC would have a much more efficient second half that would include eight of their 13 made threes to finish the game 22-for-62 (35.5 percent) from the field while hitting 11-of-17 (64.7 percent) free throws. Unfortunately for the T-Birds, Indian Hills would have a similar output for the game as a 34.62 percent shooting percentage in the first half would be turned into a 50 percent (13-of-26) effort in the second half to finish the game 42.3 percent (22-of-52) from the field while matching Cloud County's 13 threes. The Warriors would also hold a 44-35 advantage in the rebounding department and see their bench outscore CCCC's 48-17 to overcome 16 turnovers that led to 11 points for the T-Birds.
Of Cloud County's four players in double-figures, Gray would net a team-best and tie for a game-high with 17 points off the bench to go along with four rebounds while Sawyer Jr. would score 16 and provide three assists. Finishing with 15 points and a team-high eight rebounds would be Kearney alongside an 11-point performance from Graham as all five of CCCC's starters would play at least 29 minutes in the contest. Indian Hills meanwhile would get a team-best 17 points off the bench from Truth Harris as only three players would reach double figures with a balanced scoring effort leading to 10 players finding their way into the scoring column.
What's Next?
The T-Birds close out their weekend with a 4:30 PM neutral site contest against Iowa Lakes Community College to finish off their two games at the RV & Power Sport Classic. The Lakers picked up a 78-71 win in their season opener on Friday afternoon against Independence Community College and are the number-14 ranked NJCAA Division II team in the preseason polls.