Blue Dragons hand T-Birds 82-73 conference loss

It was the short shots that proved to be the difference in the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds' 82-73 Jayhawk Conference loss to the 19th-ranked Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons Wednesday night in Bryant Gymnasium.
Cloud County hit one more three-point shot and two more free throws than Hutchinson in the game.
The T-Birds out-rebounded the Blue Dragons 44-38 and had one more second chance point (14-13).
Hutchinson connected on 22 of 45 shots from two-point range for 49 percent, compared to 15 of 42 for 36 percent, for Cloud County.
The Blue Dragons finished with 42 points in the paint to 30 for the T-Birds.
"That was the difference in the game. If you would of told me that we out-rebounded Hutch, only had six more turnovers against a pressing team and we made one more three and two more free throws, that information alone would have told me that we won by five to 10 points, at least," Cloud County coach Devin Kastrup said. "Why didn't we win? The answer is they scored more from two. They made six more shots from two than we did. They had 44 points off of 45 shots from two where we scored 30 points on 42 shots. That is bad, that is really bad."
Suffering a second consecutive loss, Cloud County falls to 8-3 overall and 3-3 in the Jayhawk Conference.
It was the sixth straight win for Hutchinson, which is now 10-1 overall and 5-0 in conference play.
Neither team led by more than seven points over the first 26 minutes.
After falling behind 39-32 early in the second half, the T-Birds pulled within a point, 50-49, when Kyle  McElroy tipped in a missed shot.
Hutchinson scored five straight points to go up 55-49.
Two free throws by Emmanuel Manyoun and a three-point basket by Isaiah Sy again got Cloud County within one, 55-54.
Sy came off the bench to score 15 points on five of five shooting from three-point range.
A three-point play by Valentino Simon and a basket by Dadrevius Weathers gave Hutchinson a 60-54 cushion.
Ja'Ron Briggs Jr. made two free throws, and Cloud County trailed 60-56 with 9:13 to play in the game.
The Blue Dragons got back-to-back threes by Simon and Dallas Whitney and a dunk by Kernan Bundy to extend its lead to 68-56.
Scoring the next five points, Cloud County made it a 68-61 game with just over five minutes to play.
Hutchinson would up the lead to 10 points at 75-65.
A three-point basket by Sy left the T-Birds trailing 75-68 with 1:05 on the clock.
Cloud County followed up a basket by Simon with a layup by Abdoulaye Fall with 32 seconds left.
Scoring five points in 18 seconds, the Blue Dragons put the game out of reach.
"The difference is they finished at the rim and we didn't. Everything else was pretty even," Kastrup said.
Manyoun, who was 6 of 10 from the field and four of six from the free throw line, led Cloud County with 18 points.
Cheikh Sow matched Sy with 15 points and pulled down nine rebounds.
Fall added 12 points.
Simon led Hutchinson with 21 points. He also grabbed 13 rebounds.
Weathers scored 20 points for the Blue Dragons.
John-Paul Ricks and Kamryn Thomas added 11 points each.
Cloud County had a 10-5 lead early in the game.
Hutchinson battled back to go up 31-26.
Two free throws each by Sow and Fall and a layup by Manyoun gave Cloud County the lead back at 32-31.
Scoring the final five points of the first half, the Blue Dragons led 36-32.
A three by Zoe Holman 45 seconds into the second half gave Hutchinson a 39-32 advantage.
Cloud County would get within a point before the Blue Dragons slowly pulled away.
The T-Birds play their final game prior to Christmas break at Colby Community College on Sunday afternoon.
"We would like to go into break feeling a lot more like that team that I think we can be," Kastrup said.