Cloud County Men's Three-Game Winning Streak Snapped in 69-63 Road Loss to #11 Cowley
Following slow starts by both teams that saw a combined first-half field goal percentage of 27.4 percent, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team saw host and 11th-ranked Cowley Community College turn a seven-point halftime advantage into a 19-point second-half lead that proved to be a bit too large to overcome in a 69-63 defeat inside W.S. Scott Auditorium in Arkansas City, Kansas on Wednesday, February 28th.
Playing their eighth game against an NJCAA Division I Top-25 foe this season, Cloud County falls to 19-9 overall with the loss and 14-8 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Cowley improves to 25-4 overall and 20-3 in the KJCCC.
Shooting was anything but ideal from either team in the opening half as free-throw shooting accounted for 20 of the 53 first-half points with a 12-4 advantage at the charity stripe favoring the Tigers. Six of the first eight points of the game were scored at the free-throw line with Cloud County being held without a made field goal until the 17:13 mark as Isaiah Sy was found for an open triple to cut a 7-1 deficit down to 7-4. Managing to tie things up at 9-9 on a Roy Aviv layup, CCCC took their first lead since a 1-0 lead on a made Ian Lavalaye three before taking their largest lead of the game at 14-9 with 13:15 left in the opening half.
Five straight points from Cowley tied things back up at 14-14 before seeing a stretch of 4:01 go scoreless by both teams as nearly five minutes of game time went by without a made field goal on either end of the floor. Following ties at 16-16 and again at 18-18, Cowley managed to score six of the next 10 points to grab a 24-20 lead on a Jeff Nwankwo three before eventually ending the half on a 6-0 spurt as CCCC was held without a field goal over the final 4:28 of the opening period.
The Cowley lead quickly grew to double-digits early in the second half as back-to-back field goals put things at a 34-23 lead for the Tigers and up to 13 with 15:42 remaining as the host squad looked to be taking control of the game. Driving into the paint and getting layups to keep within striking distance, Cloud County saw Cowley use an 8-0 run to turn a 43-32 game into a 19-point contest at 51-32 as the T-Birds were in danger of having the game get away from them heading into the back end of the second half.
Despite the near 20-point deficit, CCCC continued to battle with Emmanuel Manyuon three sparking an 11-5 spurt cut the deficit down to 14 with 8:04 remaining and eventually 12 with just under seven minutes left. The T-Birds pulled within 10 on two separate occasions over the next three minutes of play but were turned back each time from getting the deficit back to single-digits until a pair of Manyuon free throws with 2:38 remaining to get within eight at 63-55 as CCCC still had time to try and make a late rally. Unfortunately for Cloud County, the next 2:20 of the game went by without a made field goal by the T-Birds as Cowley was able to match CCCC at the free-throw line to run time down to the final 18 seconds when a Manyuon three made things a five-point contest at 65-60. Forced to foul and hope for misses by the Tigers, Cloud County was not able to get the necessary empty trips from Cowley as the deficit never got lower than four in the final seconds with a pair of Tiger free throws finishing off a six-point home win on sophomore night.
Free-throw shooting was one of the bigger storylines of the evening as Cloud County finished the game 14-of-22 (63.6 percent) from the charity stripe while seeing Cowley go 29-for-37 (78.4 percent) from the free-throw line to outscore the T-Birds by 15. CCCC doubled Cowley 18-9 in points off turnovers after forcing 20 Tiger turnovers while committing just 10 of their own and also held a 16-10 advantage in points in the paint despite being outrebounded 37-27 on the glass.
A team-high 19 points was scored by Ja'ron Briggs Jr. to go along with 12 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season while Cheikh Sow added 11 points despite dealing with foul trouble throughout the evening. Both Sy and Manyuon added 10 points each while combining for four of CCCC's nine made triples with no other player for Cloud County scoring more than six. Cowley got a game-high 21 from Nwankwo while seeing Corey Thomas add 13 points and 14 rebounds in 33 minutes of action.
What's Next?
A chance to lock up the number five seed in the upcoming NJCAA Region VI Tournament is still in play for Cloud County as the T-Birds need just one win in their final two games of the regular season with the first opportunity coming against number-19-ranked Butler Community College at home on Saturday, March 2nd. Tip-off is set for 4 PM against a Grizzly squad that was upset 94-89 at home on Wednesday evening by Pratt to fall to 22-6 overall and 17-5 in the KJCCC. In this season's earlier matchup between squads, Butler managed to win 63-50 in El Dorado after holding Cloud County to at the time their worst shooting performance of the season.