T-Birds roll to 87-48 conference win over Pratt

PRATT — Lopsided wins are the exception rather than the norm in the Jayhawk Conference, but the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds have posted two in a row.
Coming off of an 87-48 conference victory over Independence Community College at home on Wednesday, the T-Birds rolled to an 80-49 road win over the Pratt Community College Beavers on Saturday afternoon.
Going back to a 20-point win over Colby Community College prior to semester break, the T-Birds, 11-4 overall and 6-3 in the Jayhawk, have won their last three conference games by an average margin of 30 points.
“I think our understanding of our offensive and defensive systems has improved. It is starting to come along. I know our process takes longer than other programs just because of what we do. I feel like our understanding is catching up to where our talent is now and we have seen that the last two games,” Cloud County coach Devin Kastrup said. “We are executing defensively and we are making shots on offense. We are sharing the ball and getting to the rim. We have played two pretty complete games this week.”
Cloud County, scoring the first five points, would never trail against Pratt.
The Beavers would pull within two points at 9-7.
Back-to-back three-point shots by Emmanuel Manyoun gave Cloud County a 15-7 cushion.
A steal and layup by Justin Robinson left Pratt trailing 15-9.
Four quick points by Ja’Ron Briggs Jr. started a 10-6 run that pushed the T-Birds’ lead to 35-15 with under three minutes to play in the first half.
Pratt, 5-8 overall and 3-5 in conference play, scored the final seven points of the first half to make it a 35-22 game.
Cloud County got a jumper by Manyoun and a three-point basket by Abdoulaye Fall in the opening minute of the second half to go up 40-22.
Zion Cruz made one of two free throws for Pratt, but the T-Birds answered with a basket by Briggs Jr. and a three by Cheikh Sow, and led 45-23.
“They came out and threw some zone at us and we executed our zone offense on the fly, which I was happy to see, made them shoot some contested jump shots and didn’t give them any easy ones. And we won the first four minutes. That allowed us to kind of put the game away after that,” Kastrup said.
Pratt would get as close as 20 points on three occasions.
It was a 54-34 game when a three-point play by Briggs Jr. and buckets by Kyle McElroy and Fall upped Cloud County’s lead to 61-34 with under eight minutes to play.
The T-Birds would lead by as many as 33 points on its way to the win.
“Pratt has a lot of talent. That is a good team that did not play well. I think they are better than the score looks, but give our guys credit as well for having a hand in that,” Kastrup said. “You look at Pratt, they just lost to the number one team in the country (South Plains College) at their place by five. So they are more than capable.”
Cloud County had five players score in double figures, led by Manyoun with 14 points. He made three of four three-point attempts.
Briggs Jr., Fall  and Isaiah Sy scored 12 points each.
Sow finished with 11 points and nine rebounds.
The T-Birds hit 32 of 57 field goal attempts for 56 percent, including 10 of 23 from three-point range for 44 percent.
Cloud County had 21 assists and 32 made field goals.
“That just shows that we are really playing team basketball. It is not necessarily equal opportunity, that is not what we are trying to do, but just kind of shows that all of our guys are a threat and when their time is called for, whatever they do well, they are taking advantage of those opportunities,” Kastrup said. “I feel like our guys have embraced making the right play.”
Caleb Smith scored 13 points for Pratt and Davonte Russ added 12 points.
Cloud County has a week off before hosting ninth-ranked Cowley College on Saturday afternoon.
Cowley is 14-1 overall and leads the Jayhawk Conference at 9-0.
The Tigers have won 12 straight games.