T-Birds avenge loss to Dodge City

Getting out to an early 15-point lead and then fending off a couple of second-half challenges, the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds avenged an earlier loss by defeating Dodge City Community College 60-49 in a Jayhawk Conference game Wednesday night in Bryant Gymnasium.
Cloud County, now 16-7 overall and 11-6 in the Jayhawk Conference, had lost 89-87 at Dodge City earlier in the season.
The Thunderbirds bolted to a 20-5 lead on the Conquistadors in the rematch.
Dodge City made a couple of runs in the second half, but the T-Birds never allowed the lead to get below 10 points on their way to the win.
"When we went down there and lost the first time it was a situation; they were down three of their main guys and we played poorly. Dodge came out and played well and we were still up six with two minutes to go and we lost that game down the stretch that we should have had," Cloud County coach Devin Kastrup said. "We knew that wasn't a bad loss, but we knew it needed to be a split. So we needed to protect home court."
Scoring the first four points of the game, Cloud County would never trail.
It was 4-3 when a three-point basket by Abdoulaye Fall started a run of nine straight points that gave the T-Birds a 13-3 advantage.
Cloud County led 15-5 when Emmanuel Manyoun scored five straight points to make it a 20-5 game.
Dodge City got as close as 10 points, 23-13, when Chevalier Emery hit a three-point shot with 10:35 remaining in the first half.
Cloud County used an 8-0 spurt to open up a 31-13 lead.
Two free throws by Avnoor Bhullar and a jumper by Emery left Dodge City trailing 31-17.
The Conquistadors would not score the final 4:10 of the half.
Cloud County scored five points, including a three by Manyoun in the final seconds, to go up 36-17.
It was a 39-20 game in the second half when Dodge City tossed in eight straight points to close the gap to 39-28.
"We got off to a good start again. We have consistently gotten off to good starts, but we have to figure out how we are going to start the second halves better. That and ball security have been an Achilles heel for us so far this year," Cloud County coach Devin Kastrup said.
Cloud County turned the ball over 23 times in the game and Dodge City scored 22 points off of those.
The T-Birds outscored the Conquistadors 13-4 over the next five minutes, and led 52-34 when Fall scored off an offensive rebound.
A three-point basket by Jamari Gamble and a basket by Jackson Schwarz got Dodge City within 13 points, 52-39.
Manyoun hit another three for Cloud County.
Dodge City scored the next six points to cut the deficit to 55-45 with 4:34 remaining.
A three-point shot by Cheikh Sow gave the T-Birds a 58-45 cushion with 2:25 on the clock.
The Conquistadors got no closer than 11 points after that.
Sow led four Cloud County players in double figures with 18 points. He also pulled down 14 rebounds.
Ja'Ron Briggs Jr. finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.
Manyoun scored 11 points and Fall added 10.
Gamble paced Dodge City with 17 points and Emery scored 14.
Cloud County plays at 15th-ranked Hutchinson Community College on Saturday.
The Blue Dragons are 19-3 overall and 14-2 in the conference.
"We just need to review what happened the first time. I thought it was a very winnable game and the reasons we lost were all kind of within our control-- ball security and finishing at the rim," Kastrup said. "Hutch is a very good team but I feel we are equal in terms of level of play. It just comes down to whose style is going to win out."