T-Birds suffer 76-63 loss to Warriors

OTTUMWA, Iowa — Heating up in the second half, the 12th-ranked Indians Hills Community College Warriors shot down the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds 76-63 Saturday night in the Hellyer Center.
Cloud County, returning to action for the first time since December 9, shot 52 percent (13 of 25) from the field and limited Indians Hills to 26 percent (7 of 27) shooting in grabbing a 33-28 lead.
Indian Hills connected on 17 of 35 field goal attempts in the second half, outscoring Cloud County 48-30 over the final 20 minutes to rally for the win.
The Warriors were 7 of 10 from three-point range in that second half for 70 percent.
The loss drops Cloud County to 9-4.
Indians Hills is now 11-3 with all three losses coming to teams ranked in the top 10.
Trailing by five points at halftime, the Warriors opened the second half with a 10-2 run to go on top, 38-35.
A jumper by Ja'Ron Briggs Jr. and a three-point shot by Ian Lavalaye gave Cloud County the lead back at 40-38.
Trevion LaBeaux scored for Indian Hills to tie the game at 40-40.
A three by Lavalaye gave Cloud County the lead back at 43-40.
Kheni Briggs connected on back-to-back threes, and the Warriors led 46-43.
Cloud County got within a point at 46-45 on a basket by Emmanuel Manyoun with 13:01 remaining in the game.
Briggs hit three more threes as the Warriors outscored the T-Birds 19-8 over the next six minutes, to make it a 65-53 game.
Cloud County could get no closer than 10 points over the final seven minutes.
Briggs Jr. and Abdoulaye Fall scored 15 points each for Cloud County.
Manyoun finished with 12 points.
Lavalaye added 10 points.
Briggs, who made 6 of 10 three-point attempts, paced Indian Hills with 18 points. He scored all of his points in the second half.
TJ Morris scored 15 points for the Warriors.
Indians Hills out-rebounded Cloud County 44-29 in the game and turned 16 offensive rebounds into 26 second-chance points.
After jumping out to a 6-0 lead in the opening 53 seconds of the game, the Warriors went nearly nine minutes without scoring.
Cloud County's first points came on a bucket by Fall with 4:18 gone by. It started a 13-0 spurt.
Davonte Hall ended Indian Hills' scoring drought by making a three.
Five straight points by Briggs Jr. gave Cloud County an 18-9 advantage.
The T-Birds would go on to lead by as many as 10 points.
It was a 33-23 game when Indians Hills scored five points in the final 56 seconds of the first half to close the gap to 33-28 when David Hermes tipped in a missed shot as time expired.
Led by Briggs, the Warriors took control of the game in the second half.
Cloud County jumps back into Jayhawk Conference play by hosting Independence Community College tonight.