CCCC bounces back from first loss to drop Knights

Bouncing back from its first loss of the season, the Cloud Community College men’s basketball team fought off North Platte (Neb.) Community College 91-79 Saturday afternoon in Bryant Gymnasium.
Cloud County had suffered a 75-66 home loss to Sunrise Christian Academy on Wednesday night.
Playing a fourth straight home game on Saturday, the Thunderbirds led the final 29:55 of the game in knocking North Platte to improve to 4-1 on the season.
Cloud County will be on the road this weekend with two games in the Iowa Western Community College Classic in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The T-Birds will play Barton Community College at 3 p.m. Friday and Des Moines Area Community College at 3 p.m. Saturday.
“Right now it is about fixing some small errors that prevent us from making tonight a 20-point win or being able to have a shot at the end this past Wednesday against Sunrise Christian, and having the season progress the way we want it to,” Cloud County coach Jordan Altman said.
Cloud County jumped out to a 9-0 lead on North Platte.
The Knights (2-3) went five minutes without scoring before Tim Johnson knocked down a three-point shot that made it 9-3.
Johnson scored seven ofhis game-high 26 points during a 14-2 run that gave North Platte its first lead at 14-11.
Two free throws by Denzel Ndongosi and three points by Chad Vincent-Simon gave Cloud County the lead back 16-14.
The T-Birds would not trail again.
A basket by DaVonte Tharpe pulled the Knights even at 16-16.
An 8-3 spurt put Cloud County on top to stay, 24-19.
The T-Birds would go up by as many as 10 points later in the first half, but the Knights wouldn’t go away.
North Platte would get as close as seven points late in the half.
DJ Sims scored on a drive in the final seconds to put Cloud County on top 45-36.
Slavomyr Marchenko scored off an offensive rebound 28 seconds into the second half, and the Knights trailed 45-38.
Back to back three-point baskets by Dyelan Reed and Jay Lewis gave Cloud County a 51-38 cushion.
Lewis led four T-Birds in double figures with 22 points. He was 9 of 18 from the field and three of six from the free throw line, and also had six assists.
North Platte would continue to hang around, and cut the deficit to just six points, 60-54 on a basket by Marchenko, who finished with 12 points.
It was a 70-64 game when Cloud County outscored the Knights 14-6 over a span of five minutes to go up 84-70.
Scoring seven points in under a minute, North Platte closed the gap to 84-77 with 2:27 to play.
Reed, a freshman from Concordia, connected on another to make it 87-77.
The Knights would get no closer the rest of  the way.
Vincent-Simon tossed in 19 points for the T-Birds.
Sims finished with 14 points and Reed added 11.
“Having the whole bench really step up and help provide us with a benefit is definitely something you like to see as a head coach and hope we can continue to do moving forward,” Altman said.
The T-Birds shot 54 percent (32 of 59) from the field and 69 percent (22 of 32) from the free throw line.
Courtney Murrell scored 20 points for North Platte.