T-Birds topple Tigers, 70-60

An upward trend by the Cloud County Community College men’s basketball team continued with a 70-60 Jayhawk Conference victory over Cowley College Monday night in Bryant Gymnasium.
Cloud County has now won four of its last five games to improve to 11-11 overall and 7-9 in the Jayhawk Conference.
After having a second half lead slip away in a road loss at Independence Community College, the Thunderbirds have recorded consecutive home wins over Seward County and Cowley.
“We have kind of been playing this way since the Northwest Kansas Tech game. So I would say it was a continuation of a couple of weeks with the exception of the one loss at Indy where we had a bad second half. Other than that one second half against Indy we have been kind of trending upwards,” Cloud County coach Devin Kastrup said. “It is an understanding and a rhythm that our guys are starting to play with.”
Cowley College was coming off back-to-back wins including one Saturday night against Hutchinson Community College, which is currently second in the Jayhawk Conference.
The Tigers were playing their fourth road game in nine days and are now 11-11 overall and just a half game ahead of Cloud County in the conference at 8-9.
“They (Tigers) had played four of five on the road. They were on their grind,” Kastrup said. “I think the Jayhawk is a grind; they were in a difficult situation, they just happened to play us, and we are rolling at the same time.”
Joe Kearny, who finished the game with 16 points, knocked down three three-point shots as Cloud County jumped out to a 15-9 lead on Cowley.
The T-Birds, after shooting 65 percent (11 of 17) from three-point range in the win over Seward County on Saturday night, connected on 10 of 21 attempts against Cowley.
“The guys are taking good shots. And now they are understanding what their rhythm looks like and now they are starting to get confident in themselves. And that is half of the battle right there,” Kastrup said.
Cowley would use a 9-2 spurt to go up 18-17.
Cloud County scored the next eight points, seven by Zion Obanla, to go on top to stay, 25-18.
Obanla came off the bench to score 17 points and grab 13 rebounds. He was seven of eight from the field.
The Tigers got as close as six points, 27-21, when Nate Duckworth scored on a drive and Corey Sawyer Jr. buried a three to give Cloud County a 32-21 cushion.
Sawyer Jr. led Cloud County with 20 points. He was three of four from three-point range.
A three-point basket by Mekhi Cameron left Cowley trailing 32-24 at halftime.
The two teams traded threes to open the second half.
Cloud County got threes from Malang Athian and Kearney to stretch the lead to 42-29.
The Tigers got as close as nine points, 46-37, on a tip by Xavier Valley with 14:01 remaining in the game.
Cloud County then went on a 13-4 run to open up a 59-41 advantage midway through the second half.
The T-Birds would go on to lead by as many as 19 points, 63-44.
Cowley would get no closer than the final margin of 10 points.
“What really enabled us to kind of pull away was we came out, and instead of relaxing the beginning of the second half, we kept an attacking mindset,” Kastrup said. “That was the first time this year that I felt like in the second half we extended our lead. They made their runs in the second half and we were able to counter with our own, which has kind of been an issue.”
Clarence King led the way for Cowley with 17 points. Cameron added 11 points.
The T-Birds limited the Tigers to just 37 percent (20 of 54) shooting from the field.
Cloud County will play a third game in five days at Pratt Community College tonight.
“We are on to Pratt, another big game, and then we will have two days to get ready for Barton at home,” Kastrup said. “We are really focused on trying to sweep Pratt. If we can get that done it will be big for us in the seedings coming down the stretch.”