Cloud County Men's Hoops Drops 78-53 Road Decision to #10 Coffeyville

Poor shooting in the first half for the number-21 nationally-ranked Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would lead to a 30-19 halftime deficit that could never be overcome in a 78-53 road loss to number-10 nationally-ranked Coffeyville Community College inside Nellis Hall in Coffeyville, Kansas on Wednesday, January 4th.

A second-straight road defeat to a top-10 opponent drops the T-Birds to 10-5 and 6-3 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the Red Ravens pick up their 13th win of the year to improve to 13 overall and 7-2 in the KJCCC.

Held scoreless for the first 4:15 of game action, Cloud County would only trail 5-0 before getting on the board with Corey Sawyer Jr. finally getting the T-Birds on the board. Starting to knock some shots down, CCCC would get back-to-back buckets from Cheikh Sow and Justin Graham to pull within one at 7-6 with 13:59 left in the first half before seeing Coffeyville score the next five points as part of an 8-2 run to go up 15-8 midway through the opening period.

With neither team looking to push the tempo in the first half, both teams would appear content to work their offensive systems to try and get into a groove and shake off the rust from a long three-plus week layoff for the holidays as the two teams would combine for just 33 points in the opening 15 minutes of game action. Trailing by 11 at 23-12 with 4:57 left before halftime, Cloud County would get four quick points from Sawyer Jr. to get back within seven before giving up seven of the final 10 points of the first half to the Red Ravens to trail 30-19 at the half.

Back-to-back triples for Coffeyville in the opening minutes of the second half would see the deficit for Cloud County grow to 15 at 36-21 as separation was finally being created by host CCC. A 6-2 spurt from the T-Birds would allow the T-Birds to stay just on the edge of cutting the lead down to single-digits before a three-and-a-half minute scoring drought would allow Coffeyville to score 11 straight points to go up 50-28 with 12:04 remaining.

Facing their largest deficit of the season, Cloud County would be unable to find any momentum on the offensive end as the Red Ravens would continue to score on seemingly every possession with the deficit continuing to grow throughout the latter half of the second period with the T-Birds managing to score 12 points in the final three minutes of play to avoid being held under the 50-point mark.

Connecting on just 12-of-30 (26.67 percent) of their shots in the first half, Cloud County would not fare any better from beyond the arc in the game by going four-for-18 (22.2 percent) from three. Coffeyville meanwhile would shoot over 40 percent from the floor in both halves and hit on 13-of-33 (39.4 percent) of their shots from deep to outscore the T-Birds by 27 from three to offset just eight free-throw attempts in the contest. The Red Ravens would also hold a 44-33 advantage in rebounds and a 16-6 advantage in points off turnovers while holding the T-Birds to just one second-chance point.

Cloud County's leading scorer would be Sawyer Jr. with 12 points and four rebounds. Sophomore Justin Graham would net 11 points and grab a team-high eight rebounds for the T-Birds as Cloud County would have just two players reach double-figures in the game. Coffeyville meanwhile would see four players reach double-figures in a balanced effort with Sotirios Nafpliotis scoring a game-high 15 points off the bench.

What's Next?
Cloud County will next be in action on Saturday, January 7th with a 4 PM home game against Garden City Community College. The Broncbusters, who are receiving votes in this week's NJCAA Top-25 Poll, improved to 10-4 overall and 5-4 in the KJCCC following a 73-67 win at home over Pratt on Wednesday night.