CCCC men top Butler

Playing their final regular season home game, the Cloud Community College Thunderbirds knocked off the 19th-ranked Butler Community College Grizzlies, 81-67, last Saturday afternoon.
Cloud County, avenging an earlier loss this season to Butler, finished 13-2 at home in the regular season and picked up its 20th victory.
“For us to get to our 20th victory of the season is a pretty big accomplishment. I think any time you win in college basketball that is kind of the benchmark for a great season. For our guys to have done that against the 19th-ranked team in the country, I thought that was really great,” Cloud County coach Devin Kastrup said.
Cloud County finished up the regular season at Northwest Kansas Technical College Wednesday night and will host a first-round game in the Region VI playoffs on Saturday.
Butler got out to a 15-8 lead on Cloud County in the opening 6:30 of the game.
Getting two three-point baskets by Emmanuel Manyoun and one by Ja’Ron Briggs Jr., the T-Birds put together a 14-5 run to go on top to stay, 26-20.
Briggs Jr. led four Cloud County players in double figures with 23 points. He also pulled down nine rebounds.
Manyoun added 19 points.
Butler closed the gap to 28-24.
Isaiah Sy buried a three to start an 8-0 spurt that put the T-Birds up 36-24.
Sy scored 12 points in the game.
Amare Haynie hit a three for the Grizzlies, but Cloud County answered with a three by Cheikh Sow to again make it a 12-point game, 39-27.
The T-Birds were 7 of 16 from three-point range in the first half.
“We ended up coming out really shooting it well, so that helped,” Kastrup said.
Butler would cut the deficit to five points, 41-36.
Sow followed up a missed shot as time expired in the first half, to make it a 43-36 Cloud County lead. He scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Charles McClennahan Jr. scored the first two points of the second half, and the Grizzlies were again within five points, 43-38.
McClennehan Jr. led Butler with 17 points.
Back-to-back threes by Manyoun and Sy started a 16-4 run that gave Cloud County a 59-42 advantage.
Butler would climb back to within eight points, 62-54.
The T-Birds scored the next seven points to make it 69-54.
The Grizzlies got no closer than 14 points over the final nine minutes.
“It is strange that we won a game by 14 where I feel like, man, we really got diced up defensively. I don’t really say that that often. But in the second half our guys got in that huddle and were talking about specific adjustments they could make to things that were causing us confusion or making us trail and they went out after that timeout in the second half and executed it. And down the stretch I thought we were much better,” Kastrup said.
Jason Drake and Jaquez Thornton scored 12 points each for Butler and Haynie added 10.