Thunderbirds down Next Level Hoops

PRATT — A big second half propelled the Cloud County Thunderbirds to an 88-59 victory over Next Level Hoops Academy Friday night in the Pratt Classic.
Cloud County led Next Level just 46-23 at halftime.
Shooting 60 percent (18 of 30) from the field, the Thunderbirds doubled up Next Level 46-23 in the second half to pull away to the lopsided win.
“This was the first time with this team where we came out, either in the first half or second half, and just put our foot on the pedal and went,” Cloud County coach Jordan Altman said, “Once our guys bought into that pace the game was over.”
Sophomore guard Jerome Kidd Jr. hit 8 of 14 field goal attempts in scoring a team high of 18 points for Cloud County. He also had six rebounds.
Kidd,who averaged 5.1 points per game last season, scored 35 points in the first two games.
“He was a guy during recruiting who was pitched to me as a scorer and someone who can go get 20 points a night. I think last year, Jerome relied a little too much on his perimeter shooting and passed on some opportunities to get to the hole,” Altman said, “So far he's getting the majority of his points by attacking into the lane and the mid-range. He's always been a great athlete, but the only time he used to dunk was on breakaways. Now he's also showing the ability to make a move and dunk over guys in traffic.”
Freshman forward Edoardo Del Cadia scored 15 points for the T-Birds.
Nysir Scott, a redshirt freshman guard finished with 12 points and four steals.
Freshman Gabe Pieschl added 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Cloud County limited Next Level to 24 percent shooting in the second half.
The T-Birds forced 20 turnovers in the game, and had 10 steals.
“We had our hands on passes the entire second half. Extremely active hands on defense,” Altman said, “I thought Nysir did a fantastic job on the weak side of keeping his hands up. Gabe did another excellent job on defense shutting guys down, and Ty (Duin) dug a lot of balls out in the post when he helped down. The guys didn't take any breaks on defense in the second half. They finished every possession. It was those steals and deflections that really got our offense going and allowed us to balloon out the lead.”
Duin had three steals to go with seven points.
Sophomores Alvin Thompson and Adetomi Ayilara scored nine points each.
In the other game played on Saturday, host Pratt Community College defeated the Kansas Wesleyan University junior varsity, 106-54.