Gritty Road Effort Leads Cloud County Men's Basketball Team to Win Over North Platte
Flipping the script from just eight days ago, the Cloud County Community College men's basketball team would turn in a key defensive road effort to hold host North Platte Community College 22 points under their season average to take a 74-62 decision inside McDonald-Belton Gymnasium in North Platte, Nebraska on Wednesday, November 9th.
The win for Cloud County is the second straight for the T-Birds to improve to 2-2 overall on the season while North Platte falls for the first time on the season to drop to 3-1 overall. Wednesday's victory also marks the second-straight year where CCCC has dropped their season opener to the Knights before avenging their loss with a win later in the year against NPCC.
"I feel like any time you can go and get a true road win it's a really positive thing and especially when you consider that we had just lost to this team eight days ago" said head coach Devin Kastrup in a post-game interview. "Our main focus going into tonight was last week we didn't make free throws, we didn't make layups, we didn't make jump shots and we turned the ball over." "Tonight, we fixed most of those things by hitting our free throws, layups, and jump shots, so if we could have cleaned up our turnovers we really could have swung tonight into a larger margin." "Early on, I felt like we were really getting good looks and they just weren't falling which is why the game stay close for as long as it did." "Our non-conference schedule was set up this year to go to places like Indian Hills to experience what two ranked opponents look like and then followed that up with a four-hour drive tonight to get a win in a tough road environment." "All of these things will hopefully prepare us for what conference play will look like when things open up next week."
Avoiding a slow start that has been problematic in the early going this season, Cloud County would have their offense working early with each of CCCC's first four made buckets coming by way of layups to go along with a Malang Athian free throw to open a 9-4 lead on North Platte to force a Knight timeout just over five minutes into the contest. Two more layups over the ensuing two minutes would allow the T-Birds to take their largest lead of the first half at 13-9 with 12:35 remaining in the opening period as Cloud County would force NPCC into another quick timeout to try and keep things from getting away from them, After giving up five quick points to North Platte, CCCC would get a Ja'Ron Briggs Jr. triple to get their lead back to seven before seeing the Knights score the next seven points to tie things up while holding the T-Birds scoreless for nearly three minutes of action.
Splitting a pair of free throws would be Joe Kearney to allow CCCC to reclaim a one-point lead that would ultimately be short-lived as North Platte would hit a three to go up 19-17 with 5:24 left in the first half. Second-chance points from Justin Graham would allow the T-Birds to tie things back up at 19-19 before seeing the Knights go on a 7-3 run that would give North Platte a 26-22 lead with just over two minutes remaining in the half. Putting together a strong end to the opening period would be CCCC however as back-to-back buckets from Andre Gray II would allow the T-Birds to reclaim the lead at 27-26 as the final eight points scored by Cloud County would come from the Minneapolis, Minnesota native to outscore NPCC 8-2 in the final 2:24 of action and put CCCC up 32-28 at the break.
North Platte would quickly cut into the lead to start the second half with a three-point play on a layup and flopping technical to bring the score within a point at 32-21 as separation would still be hard to come by for the T-Birds. Having a response would be Kearney by burying a three on CCCC's opening possession of the half to go back up four before seeing a 6-1 NPCC run put the Knights back on top by a 37-36 margin. Back and forth the game would go over the next two-plus minutes of play as both teams would trade points to see North Platte hold their lead at 42-40 which would be sustained by a two-minute scoreless stretch for both squads. The point-for-point action would continue back and forth well into the mid-way point of the second half as CCCC would tie things up on three separate occasions just to see the Knights retake the lead before a pair of Cheikh Sow free throws would be followed by two Corey Sawyer Jr. free throws to break a 44-44 tie and put Cloud County up by four.
Cloud County would extend their lead to seven on their next offensive possession with Kearney nailing another triple as the T-Bird offense would once again appear to become alive only for North Platte to seven of the next eight points to get back within one at 52-51. Free throw shooting would begin to play a factor with fouls mounting up on both sides with the T-Birds taking advantage of their opportunities which would ultimately allow them to maintain a two-possession lead. CCCC's lead would hover between three and seven points over the next four-plus minutes of play as the T-Birds would again have trouble finding a way to really break the game open as NPCC would continue to find ways to come up with points when they needed them most.
Leading 67-62 with just over three minutes to go, Cloud County would see Sawyer Jr. split a pair of free throws following a Knight foul but get a massive one-and-done offensive possession from North Platte to keep things at a six-point margin. Following empty possessions for both teams on their next offensive opportunities, Cloud County would slowly begin to bleed the clock away before finding an open Sow in the corner to hit a dagger three that would push the lead to nine with just 1:28 remaining and time beginning to become a factor for NPCC. Cloud County's defense would once again rise to the occasion late by forcing a Knight turnover as North Platte would be forced to foul with Sawyer Jr. putting the game on ice by connecting on three of four free throw attempts in the final 58 seconds to seal a 12-point win for the T-Birds.
Limited shot attempts by CCCC would not be a factor for the T-Birds as Cloud County would finish the game 23-of-48 (47.9 percent) from the field and a season-best 22-for-28 (78.6 percent) from the charity stripe to outscore the Knights by five from the free throw line (17-of-22, 77.3 percent for NPCC). The T-Birds would however be hampered by 20 turnovers which would be turned into 22 points for North Platte as the Knights would outscore CCCC 22-12 in points off turnovers and 18-12 in bench points.
A pair of double-doubles for Cloud County would come courtesy of Graham (14 points, 10 rebounds) and Sow (11 points, 10 rebounds) as four of the five T-Bird starters would reach double-figures. An 11-for-14 performance from the free throw line by Sawyer Jr. would be part of a team-high 15 points despite dealing with foul trouble throughout the evening as the sophomore would add six rebounds and two of CCCC's seven blocks in the game. North Platte would be led by a game-high 21 from Ramiah Adedigba as three Knights would reach double figures to account for 50 of their 62 total points.
What's Next?
A second-straight trip to the Cornhusker State will find Cloud County in Norfolk, Nebraska this coming Saturday, November 12th as the T-Birds will have a 4 PM road contest at Northeast Community College. The Hawks are 1-1 on the season following an 81-75 win over Central Community College this past Tuesday evening with Saturday's game scheduled to be the first against an NJCAA Division I opponent for Northeast this season. Last year, CCCC dropped a 68-56 home decision to the Hawks in their non-conference final in what was the lone meeting between teams dating back to 2012.