T-Birds pick up first win by defeating Lakers, 76-62

OTTUMA, Iowa — Going wire to wire, the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds picked up their first win of the season by knocking off Iowa Lakes Community College 76-62 Saturday afternoon in the RV & Power Sports Classic hosted by Indian Hills Community College.
Cloud County was coming off a home loss to North Platte Community College on Tuesday and a 79-68 setback to third-ranked Indian Hills on Friday.
The T-Birds shot a season-best 56 percent (24 of 43) from the field, including 47 percent (9 of 19) from three-point range, on its way to defeat Iowa Lakes, a team ranked 14th in NJCAA Division II.
“All week we talked about shooting the ball with confidence,” Cloud County coach Devin Kastrup said. “We have practiced and practiced what a good shot looks like so biggest keys going into the weekend were, if it is the right shot for the team, and you play unselfish, shoot it and have confidence. And I think we did that all weekend and it really started to manifest itself in that Iowa Lakes game.”
Sophomore Justin Graham knocked down a three-point shot 13 seconds into the game, and Cloud County would never trail.
Graham led three T-Birds in double figures with 19 points on 7 of 10 shooting.
Connecting on six of their first seven shots, the T-Birds would build a 17-6 lead on the Lakers.
Iowa Lakes, which had opened its season with a 78-71 win over Independence Community College on Friday, scored eight straight points to close the gap to 17-14 when Creighton Morisch hit a jumper with 10:20 to play in the first half.
The Lakers would get as close as one point, 19-18.
Baskets by Cheikh Sow, Graham and Ja’ron Briggs Jr. pushed Cloud County’s lead to 25-18.
Two free throws by Anthony Holden pulled Iowa Lakes within five points, 25-20.
Cloud County outscored the Lakers 11-4 over the final 3:22 of the first half to build a 36-24 advantage.
“To see some shots fall just naturally gave them some momentum for themselves and for their teammates,” Kastrup said.
A pair of free throws by Graham 12 seconds in to the second half gave the T-Birds a 38-24 cushion.
Iowa Lakes pulled as close as 10 points on three occasions.
It was a 48-38 game when Cloud County got a pair of free throws by Graham, one of two free throws by Andre Gray II, a three-point basket by Joe Kearney and a bucket by Graham to push the lead to 56-38.
The T-Birds went up by as many as 21 points.
Iowa Lakes, trailing 68-49, scored nine straight points to make it a 68-58 game with just under three minutes to play.
Jalen Smith scored in the paint and then Cloud County connected on six of eight free throws down the stretch to secure the win.
“For us to have only a one day prep, I thought our guys did a fantastic job defensively, forcing them into 19 turnovers, just absolutely stifling them from the field,” Kastrup said. “They tried to run a motion similar to what North Platte did and I thought our guys handled their cutters, had a couple of breakdowns there in the second half when we let them back into the game, but for us to get up by 20 against a very talented Iowa Lakes team was very encouraging from a defensive standpoint,” Kastrup said.
Corey Sawyer scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the T-Birds.
Joe Kearney added 13 points.
Sow finished with a team-high 11 rebounds.
Anthony Holden paced Iowa Lakes with 15 points. Isaiah Williams added 14 points.
The Lakers shot just 33 percent (20 of 61) from the floor and were just 3 of 23 from three-point range for 13 percent.
Cloud County will be on the road for a rematch with North Platte on Wednesday night.