Cowley completes regular season sweep of T-Birds

A 64-56 home loss to the Cowley College Tigers leaves the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds needing a road win over the Colby Community College Trojans and a little help to earn a home game in the opening round of the Region VI Tournament.
Cloud County, now 14-15 overall and 10-13 in the conference, could have secured a home game in the postseason by defeating Cowley and Colby in the final two games of the regular season.
Cowley, 16-13 overall and also 10-13 in the conference, put together a 12-0 run in the second half to turn an eight-point lead into a 57-37 advantage on its way to picking up the Jayhawk Conference win over Cloud County on Saturday afternoon.
By completing the regular season sweep, the Tigers moved into a tie for eighth place in the conference with the T-Birds.
Cowley owns the tiebreaker over Cloud County.
The T-Birds and the Tigers are locked into the eighth and ninth spots in the conference standings and will play each other in the first round of the tournament on Saturday. Which team hosts that game will be determined on Wednesday.
The top four teams in the conference receive a bye in the first round of the tournament and the next four teams host first-round games.
Cloud County now needs to defeat Colby on Wednesday and have Cowley lose at home to Pratt Community College to finish in the eighth spot.
If both teams win or both teams lose, Cowley will host the tournament game.
Dodge City Community College (18-5) sits atop the conference standings. Coffeyville Community College (17-6) is second. Garden City Community College and Barton Community College are tied for third (16-7).
Butler Community College (15-8) is fifth in the conference. Hutchinson Community College and Pratt Community College (12-11) are in a tie for sixth place.
The T-Birds and the Tigers locked up in a tight, low-scoring battle throughout the first half. There were seven lead changes and four ties.
Neither team led by more than four points, and Cowley was up 28-24 at halftime.
Cloud County scored the first two points of the second half to close the gap to 28-26.
Scoring the next five points, the Tigers went up 33-26.
Ja’Ron Briggs Jr. scored for Cloud County, but the Tigers got a bucket by Jeff Nwankwo and a three-point shot by Mekhi Cameron to make it a 38-28 game.
Cameron hit 7 of 10 field goal attempts, including five of seven from three-point range, and 9 of 10 free throws on his way to scoring a game-high 28 points.
Briggs Jr., who finished with 10 points, knocked down a three, and Cloud County trailed 38-31.
Cowley extended the lead back to 10 points, 45-35.
Kyle McElroy scored inside to make it a 45-37 game with 11:20 remaining.
The Tigers then scored 12 points in 3:11.
Cameron sandwiched a pair of threes around a jumper by Mooch Austin, Nwankwo followed up a missed shot and Corey Thomas hit from 15 feet to extend the Tigers’ lead to 57-37.
Cloud County, after going nearly four minutes without scoring, used a 9-2 run to cut the deficit to 13 points, 59-46, when Malang Athian connected on a three with 4:14 on the clock.
Leading 61-48, the Tigers made eight of eight free throws over the final 1:26 to hold off the T-Birds.
Corey Sawyer and Justin Graham scored 12 points each for Cloud County.
Sawyer also had six rebounds and five steals.
Athian matched Briggs Jr. with 10 points.
The T-Birds shot 35 percent (19 of 55) from the field. They made 7 of 24 three-point attempts for 29 percent.
Austin finished with 12 points for Cowley and Nwankwo added 10 points.
The Tigers, after going 10 of 28 from the floor in the first half, were 11 of 20 in the second half for 55 percent. They connected on 20 of 23 free throws for 87 percent.