Five Players in Double-Figures as Cloud County Men Take Down Pratt 80-49
Never trailing and leading by as many as 33 late in the second half, the Cloud County men's basketball team saw five players finish the game in double-figures to fuel an 80-49 road win over Pratt Community College inside the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena in Pratt, Kansas on Saturday, January 6th.
Moving to 11-4 overall and 6-3 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference, Cloud County has now won three straight games within the conference and earned their first win over the Beavers in Pratt since November 22, 2016. Pratt falls to 5-8 overall and 3-5 in the KJCCC following a second-straight defeat while suffering their third home loss of the season.
With points hard to come by in the opening minutes of the game, it was Cloud County who managed to break a scoreless tie with an Isaiah Sy triple 1:45 into the contest before getting a Kyle McElroy layup 42 seconds later to take a 5-0 lead. A layup and dunk for Pratt allowed the Beavers to close the score to within a point at 5-4 before seeing Prentice Young Jr. get into the scoring column with a layup as the T-Birds continued to attack the paint with an Abdoulaye Fall layup pushing the lead back out to five at 9-4 with 14:30 left in the first half. Three-straight points for PCC brought the Beavers back within two at 9-7 before back-to-back triples from freshman Emmanuel Manyuon for CCCC extended the lead to eight with the T-Birds eventually taking a double-digit lead at 19-9 at the midway point of the opening period.
Cloud County's lead grew to 12 on a Cheikh Sow layup on a second-chance opportunity after seeing CCCC's first shot off a Pratt turnover get blocked as the T-Birds used a 9-1 run to go up 31-14 and force Pratt to use a timeout with 4:30 left before halftime. CCCC's lead grew to as many as 20 in the opening period with Fall putting Cloud County up 35-15 with 3:01 left before a 7-0 run by Pratt to end the first half allowed the Beavers to close the gap to 13 at 35-22.
Having held a double-digit halftime lead on the road at Pratt last year that eventually ended in a 67-64 loss, Cloud County looked determined to avoid a similar fate in this year's contest coming out of the locker room as a 10-1 T-Bird run quickly extended the lead to 45-23 with 16:38 left in the contest. Allowing just two made free throws by Pratt in the first four-plus minutes of the second half, CCCC looked to be in full control with a 50-26 lead as the first made Beaver field goal of the second came with 15:23 left to spark a 6-2 PCC run to get back within 20. After trading buckets with Pratt in their next offensive possessions, Cloud County got a three-point play from Ja'ron Briggs Jr. to kickstart a 12-2 run that extended the lead to 30 at 66-36 with 6:09 left as the game was just about out of reach heading into the final stretch of action.
Five quick points from Pratt gave the Beavers a small burst of momentum that did not ultimately amount to anything as Fall connected on a shot from beyond the arc to put Cloud County back up 28 at 69-41 as part of an 11-4 run to give the T-Birds their largest lead of the game on a Cav Carlgren three with 1:43 remaining. Holding a 77-44 lead, CCCC managed to play out the final 103 seconds by trading made three-point baskets with Pratt to go along with a pair of Beaver free throws as both teams let things finish out with Cloud County holding a second-straight opponent under 50 points.
Coming off Wednesday's win that saw the T-Birds shoot nearly 53 percent from the floor, CCCC outdid themselves by having their second-most efficient shooting game of the year with a 56.1 percent (37-of-57) outing from the floor and eighth game of the season shooting over 40 percent from three (10-for-23, 43.5 percent). Despite being limited to just nine free throw attempts, Cloud County converted six for a 66.7 percent free throw percentage and used a 13-5 advantage in second-chance points along with a 39-24 rebounding advantage while holding PCC to a 33.3 percent (17-of-51) shooting performance after seeing the Beavers enter the game shooting 49.9 percent from the floor for a season average.
Of the five players in double-figures for Cloud County, Manyuon scored a game-high 14 points off the bench to lead the way after going five-of-seven from the field and grabbing five rebounds in 25 minutes of action while the trio of Sy, Briggs Jr., and Fall all had 12 points each. Sow finished one rebound shy of a double-double by recording 11 points and nine rebounds as three of the five starters for Cloud County were part of the double-figure scoring efforts. Pratt saw Caleb Smith (13) and Davonte Russ (12) score 25 of their 49 total points as no other player for the Beavers scored more than eight as part of their lowest scoring output of the season (previous low for Pratt was 66 in an 82-66 loss to Garden City).
What's Next?
What will arguably be the toughest test to date for Cloud County, CCCC will now have a week to prepare for their fourth game of the year against a ranked foe when number-nine ranked Cowley Community College comes to town for a 4 PM game on Saturday, January 13th. The Tigers are 14-1 overall and are the lone unbeaten team in conference play while sporting a 9-0 mark in the KJCCC. Cowley's lone loss came in overtime on the road against nationally ranked Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa by a score of 89-83 on November 8th as CCC has won their past 12 games ahead of a 7:30 PM home game against Pratt this coming Wednesday. Cloud County faced off against Cowley three times last season, dropping both games in the regular season before earning a 71-63 win in the opening round of the NJCAA Region VI Tournament for their first postseason win since the 2015-16 season.