T-Birds put in overtime to down Mavericks, 68-64

A shaky second half forced the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds to put in some overtime to defeat Northwest Kansas Technical College 68-64 in a Jayhawk Conference matchup Saturday afternoon in Bryant Gymnasium.
Cloud County, playing its first game following semester break, had what appeared to be a commanding 34-18 halftime lead on Northwest Tech.
The T-Birds connected on just 8 of 34 field goal attempts for 24 percent, and missed all 13 of their shots from three-point range in the second half.
Northwest Tech outscored Cloud County 40-24 over the final 20 minutes of regulation play to tie the game at 58-58 and force overtime.
The T-Birds knocked down four of six shots from the field in outscoring the Mavericks 10-6 in overtime to pick up the win and improve to 8-7 overall and 2-4 in conference play.
“Today the disappointment comes from how we specifically talked about how we wanted to come out and play in the second half and how we ended up doing exactly what we warned our players not to do,” Cloud County coach Jordan Altman said, “We need some of our sophomore leadership to step up as our mentality wasn’t right coming out of the locker room, and we found ourselves in a dogfight that we had to go to overtime to earn a win.”
Northwest Tech shot just 23 percent (6 of 26) from the field in falling behind Cloud County by 16 points in the first half.
The Mavericks needed less than nine minutes to erase that deficit in the second half.
A layup by Tadas Baracevicius capped off a 23-6 surge, and gave Northwest Tech its first lead of the game, 41-40, with 11:28 remaining.
Two free throws by Reece Warren put the Mavericks up 43-40.
A pair of free throws by Iyen Enaruna and a basket by Michael Ozomah gave Cloud County the lead back at 44-43.
The two teams would then go back and forth over the final 9:55 of the regulation.
Neither team would lead by more than two points.
Enaruna scored with 1:21 on the clock to give Cloud County a 58-56 advantage.
Warren hit a jumper and the game was tied at 58-58.
The T-Birds had a missed shot by Ty Duin and the Mavericks committed a turnover.
Cloud County, following a timeout, ran the clock under 10 seconds. Jay Lewis was unable to connect on a jumper.
Northwest Tech came down with the defensive rebound, and a three-point shot by Fred Yana as time expired wouldn’t fall, and the game went to overtime.
Lewis scored 17 seconds into the extra period to put Cloud County up 60-58.
Baracevisius followed up a missed shot to pull the Mavericks even at 60-60.
Freshman Dyelan Reed hit his first shot of the game, a three, to give the T-Birds a 63-60 lead with 2:50 on the clock.
Yana scored inside, and Northwest Tech was within a point, 63-62.
Cloud County answered with a basket by Akene Agee. He was fouled on the shot, but couldn’t complete the three-point play.
The T-Birds made just one of five free throws in the overtime.
Duin, after an empty possession by the Mavericks, knocked down a jumper to give Cloud County a 67-62 cushion with 59 seconds left.
Northwest Tech would turn the ball over, but Lewis missed two free throws.
CJ Rosser scored off an offensive rebound to get the Mavericks within three points, 67-64, with 26 seconds to play.
Agee was fouled nine seconds later. He went one of two from the line to put the T-Birds on top 68-64.
The Mavericks missed on three shots over the final 10 seconds as Cloud County escaped with the win.
Enaruna scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the T-Birds.
Lewis finished with12 points, six rebounds and five steals.
Ozomah pulled down 11 rebounds.
Rosser led Northwest Tech with 18 points.
Yana added 14 points for the Mavericks.
The T-Birds travel to Great Bend to play Barton Community College on Wednesday night.