Cloud County Men Outpace Northwest Kansas Tech Mavericks in Home Win, 86-75
A game riddled with 60 total fouls and 85 combined free throws, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team put up over 40 points in both halves to outrun visiting Northwest Kansas Technical College in an 86-75 home win inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday, January 20th.
Picking up win number 13 of the year, Cloud County improves to 13-5 overall and 8-4 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference and is now 7-2 all-time against Northwest Kansas Tech. The Mavericks see a three-game winning streak snapped with the loss, falling to 7-11 overall and 3-9 in the KJCCC.
The first of the free throws came before any time ran off the clock as Cloud County was assessed an administrative pre-game technical and started the game in a 1-0 hole before seeing NW Tech hit an open three on their second offensive possession of the game to go up 4-0 with 18:48 left in the first half. After being held scoreless for the first two-plus minutes of the game, Cloud County got on the scoreboard with a made Kyle McElroy layup before tying things up with a Prentice Young Jr. layup with 16:24 left in the period as points proved hard to come by early on. One additional tie at 6-6 came before the T-Birds were able to take their first lead on an Abdoulaye Fall steal that led to a Cheikh Sow breakaway dunk with neither team able to hold a lead of larger than four throughout the opening eight minutes of play. Trying to protect a 10-9 lead, CCCC used a McElroy Dunk to spark a 7-2 run to extend their lead to 17-11 with 8:47 remaining with the advantage for the T-Birds eventually growing to double-digits off an Isaiah Sy free throw with 6:19 left before halftime.
Northwest Tech managed to get back within single digits over the following two minutes of play as a 5-0 run came for the Mavericks with all five points being scored at the free throw line to turn a 12-point deficit into a seven-point deficit at 25-18. Responding with a made three by Sy, Cloud County pushed their lead back up to 12 at 30-18 before eventually taking their largest lead of the first half at 35-22 with 1:22 remaining with Fall working his way into the paint for a layup. Another run by the Mavericks to close out the half allowed Northwest Tech to score eight of the final 11 points of the first half with two T-Bird turnovers leading to four points in the final 14 seconds of the first and bringing the score to 38-30 in favor of Cloud County.
Trying to take control in the early stages of the second half, Cloud County quickly extended their lead back to double-digits at 40-30 before matching their 13-point lead with a Sy triple as five quick points came in the opening 1:20 of the period. Five straight points by Northwest Tech came as part of a 7-3 run for the Mavericks to continue to hang around and stay within single digits as CCCC struggled to find a way to put some true separation between the two teams. For as uncomfortable as a double-digit lead could feel, Cloud County continued to battle through a tightly called game that featured both teams in the bonus early on in the second half to maintain their lead at 53-43 with 13:35 remaining. After a T-Bird turnover that did not amount to anything for Northwest Tech, Cloud County saw an Emmanuel Manyuon layup start an 8-0 run with six of the eight points coming from the Austin, Minnesota native to give the T-Birds their largest lead of the game at 61-43.
With the lead having grown to nearly 20 points, Cloud County finally had a chance to try and put the game out of reach but was turned back by a Maverick team that showed no quit and managed to chip away at the CCCC lead to get back within 12 at 71-59 with 7:34 remaining. Free throw shooting became the biggest factor moving forward as the T-Birds struggled to make the most of their opportunities at the charity stripe which allowed Northwest Tech to get within 10 with just under five minutes remaining and still have a chance heading into the final stretch. Starting to figure out their free throw woes and connecting on each of their next five attempts, Cloud County pushed their lead back out to 14 at 80-66 with just over four minutes remaining and up to 16 on a Manyuon layup with 1:30 remaining to put the game out of reach.
Limiting Northwest Tech to just 18 made field goals, Cloud County finished the game by going 27-of-50 (54.0 percent) from the field and seven-of-16 (43.8 percent) from three despite missing 19 free throw attempts and going 25-of-44 (56.8 percent) from the charity stripe. 34 of the 75 Maverick points were scored at the free throw line with a 34-for-41 (82.9 percent) effort coming from NWKT along with a five-of-13 (38.5 percent) three-point percentage. Points in the paint were controlled by Cloud County 40-24 as was a 41-30 rebounding advantage with the T-Birds securing 10 offensive rebounds to hold a 14-9 advantage in second-chance points.
Five different players for Cloud County scored at least 13 points in the game led by a team-best 18-point outing from both Sow and Manyuon with Sow grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the year. McElroy scored a career-high 14 points and added five rebounds while Fall scored 13 for his 13th game of the year in double-digits. Northwest Tech was led by a game-high 27 points from Keyishon Miller off the bench as the sophomore went 15-of-18 from the free throw line.
What's Next?
Cloud County will look for their first road win over Seward County since November 19, 2016 when they head to Liberal to take on the Saints in an 8 PM contest on Wednesday, January 24th. The T-Birds have dropped their four games at Seward County not including a forfeit victory during the 2020-21 season as the T-Birds were awarded a forfeit win due to Seward County not having enough players to field a team. Earlier this season, CCCC took down SCCC 82-57 in their KJCCC opener as Seward County currently sports a 5-12 overall record and a 3-8 mark in the KJCCC going into a game at Pratt on Saturday evening.