Hosting number 17 ranked Barton to conclude a four-game home stand, after a thrilling win over Seward, the Cloud County Community College men’s basketball team fell to the Cougars in a 78-76 heartbreaker.
After a technical foul on Barton before the game even started to give the T-Birds a 1-0 lead, the two KJCCC opponents locked horns early in the game, with five lead changes just over five minutes into the game. Cloud was the first team to start to pull away. From being down 11-10, the T-Birds went on a 10-2 run to take a 21-13 lead with 12 minutes left in the half. Barton would regain their composure and start to establish some offense as Cloud tried to hold onto their lead. For the rest of the half, Cloud would be able to hold at least a two-possession lead, before going on another run to take a 35-24 lead, but a 7-0 Barton run in the final 3:14 of the half made it a 35-31 Cloud lead entering halftime.
Barton tried their hardest to take the lead to start the second half, but Cloud was able to keep them just out of reach. The Cougars would tie the game, and the T-Birds would build another small lead. As the second half progressed the Cougars would start to make points up to Cloud, with a lot of the work coming at the free-throw line, and with 28 seconds left to play Barton had their first lead of the half, 75-74. Cloud would get a tip-in from Samuel Akot with 4 seconds left, to make it a 77-76 game. One more Barton free throw and a missed game-winning three gave the T-Birds the 78-76 heartbreaking loss.
Manasseh Stackhouse led in scoring with 16 points and had nine rebounds, a block and a steal.
D’Ontez Walker had 14 points and six rebounds.
Syncere Burnette had 13 points, eight rebounds and two assists.
Against Seward, the T-Birds won 85-65.
After finding themselves down 8-0 in the first five minutes, things finally clicked for the Cloud offense, roaring off a 17-2 run to take a 17-10 lead. Seward tried to regain the momentum and got the lead down to three, but that’s the lowest it would get all game. With a dunk by Stackhouse and back-to-back threes in the final two minutes, Cloud entered the locker room leading 38-24.
The T-Birds didn’t slow down in the second half, the Cloud lead grew to 20 points with 12:54 to go. Cloud would be able to coast the rest of the way thanks to shooting over 59 percent in the second half, with eight different T-Birds scoring points as the offense clicked and put players in the spots to succeed.
Stackhouse led in scoring with 18 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
Walker had 16 points and five rebounds.
Elidjah Savane had 15 points, six rebounds, three blocks and a steal.
Samuel Akot had 13 points.
