The Cloud County Community College (CCCC) men’s basketball team competed in two contests: the first on Wednesday, Jan. 7, against Fort Hays Tech Northwest and the second on Saturday, Jan. 10, against Garden City Community College (GCCC).
The CCCC Thunderbirds traveled to Fort Hays Tech Northwest for the contest last Wednesday, where the T-Birds defeated the Tigers 92-73. Fort Hays Tech Northwest scored the first points of the game through a layup by Pape Fall, but the T-Birds hit back with a three-point basket by Manasseh Stackhouse in the first two minutes.
After this three-pointer by Stackhouse, the T-Birds ran the game for the first half, outscoring the Tigers by 15 points. T-Bird players only missed one free throw throughout the entire half, while the Tigers couldn’t reach 50% at the same score line.
Toward the end of the first half, the T-Birds reached a 20-point lead on the Tigers before Jasiah Shields scored a layup and a three-point basket to put Fort Hays Tech Northwest 15 points behind.
In the second half, the T-Birds maintained their double-digit lead until the end of the game, but the Tigers did their best to catch up. Fort Hays Tech Northwest players narrowed the gap to an 11-point lead for the T-Birds with 10 minutes left to go. A T-Bird layup by DJ Holloway in the last minute sealed the game at 92-73.
Stackhouse led the T-Birds in scoring at 26 points while getting 10 rebounds. Holloway scored 22 points while getting 12 rebounds.
Against the GCCC Broncbusters, the Thunderbirds won by only two points with an ending score of 87-85.
At the beginning of the game, the T-Birds’ Kuel Akot set the scene with a three-point basket during the first minute of competition. Only seconds later, the Broncbusters scored two points with a layup to put Garden City on the scoreboard.
Cloud County continued its momentum through the first few minutes, gaining eight points until Garden City caught up to begin a close contest throughout the first half. The Thunderbirds held a comfortable single-point lead for most of the half, until a Broncbuster scored on a jumper in the last minute to pull the team ahead at 46-44.
The close contest continued into the second half, with D’Ontez Walker scoring two with a jumper in the first 20 seconds of the half. Stackhouse brought the score up by two more moments later with a layup while Garden City still had yet to score.
It would take about 2 minutes for the Broncbusters to score, but the teams continued competing neck-and-neck, with Cloud County’s largest lead sitting around six points after a Stackhouse dunk early in the half.
With only 3 minutes remaining, the Thunderbirds held a one-point lead at 81-80. After a back-and-forth of fouls and free throws, Cloud County took the win 87-85 over the Broncbusters.
Stackhouse was the leading player for the T-Birds with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Akot was second with 21 points, but Walker snagged second place for rebounds at 5.
