A nasty bout of foul trouble proved devastating for the Pratt Community College mens basketball team, which lost a heartbreaker to Cloud Conty, 86-81, Saturday night at home.
The Beavers played the final 6:48 with both starting post players reduced to cheerleaders in a game filled with fouls and free throws.
Cloud County went on a 5-0 run immediately after Illiwa Baldwin was whistled for his fifth foul and had to join Jay Valerius on the bench.
That run put the T-birds up 68-63 with six minutes left.
With an all-guard lineup, the Beavers hung tough, but couldn’t quite get over the hump as Cloud County seemed to get every rebound in the final minutes.
With 1:19 left, Monty Gordon drove to the basket and came away with a pair of free throws that made it 76-72 Cloud.
The T-birds answered with two free throws by Eric Ray, sending John Rutherford to the bench with five fouls and his team down 78-72.
Gordon went straight to the rim again, scoring on a driving layup with 50 seconds left to make it a four-point game again.
Pratt’s Jamar Reese gave the foul, but Adrian Herrera hit both free throws with 43 seconds left.
Four seconds later, Trae Beck buried a three in front of the Pratt bench, making it a three-point game.
Cloud’s Patrick Schulte then missed both free throws, but the rebound was tied up and Cloud had the possession arrow in its favor.
That led to another foul, and this time Herrera hit both shots for an 82-77 lead with 33 seconds left.
Gordon again drove to the basket, but this time didn’t make the shot or draw the foul, and Pratt was forced to give another foul.
Eric Marshall missed a pair at the line, but the Beavers couldn’t get back-to-back threes to fall at the other end.
Ray corralled the second rebound and then hit a pair of free throws with 13 seconds left for an 84-77 Cloud lead.
Gordon’s layup with 6.3 seconds left set up another fouling situation, but Herrera — who was eight-for-eight at the stripe — hit both and it was a seven-point game before Gordon hit another layup at the buzzer.
Gordon led all scorers with 27 points as he hit 11 of 19 free throws and also had four rebounds and two steals.
Pratt also got 13 points, six rebounds, and two assists from Beck, while Rutherford had 12 points.
Taner Hayes led the Beavers with eight rebounds, plus had two assists and hit all four of his free throws.
Baldwin finished with eight points and four rebounds while Valerius had two rebounds and two assists.
Cloud County (13-11, 6-5 Jayhawk West) capitalized on 49 free throw attempts, hitting 37, as Pratt was whistled for 33 fouls in the game.
The Beavers shot the ball better than Cloud (44.7 pecent to 39.2 percent) and forced 14 T-bird turnovers to just 12 giveaways of their own, but couldn’t rally without their two leading rebounders down the stretch.
Pratt dropped to 17-7 overall and 6-4 in Jayhawk West games with a tough stretch coming up.
The Beavers, currently a half-game ahead of Cloud for fourth place in the Jayhawk West, will travel to Seward County (19-6, 8-3) Wednesday night before hosting Dodge City (16-9, 4-7) on Saturday night.
Cloud men 86, Pratt 81
CCCC: Adrian Herrera 6-10 8-8 23, Tyuwane Modupe 4-8 9-10 17, Eric Ray 3-11 8-12 16, Eric Marshall 4-8 8-10 16, Ben Steinlage 2-4 2-2 6, Antonio Stewart 1-2 1-2 3, Drake Green 1-4 0-0 2, Brandon Newton 1-2 0-0 2, Patrick Schulte 0-2 1-4 1, Mohammed Fall 0-3 0-0 0, Dewayne Wade 0-2 0-0 0. TOTALS 22-56 37-49 86.
PCC: Monty Gordon 8-13 11-19 27, Trae Beck 4-9 2-4 13, John Rutherford 4-9 2-4 12, Illiwa Baldwin 2-7 4-5 8, Marcus Smith 3-5 0-2 7, Taner Hayes 1-3 4-4 6, Trent Thomas 1-6 1-2 4, Jay Valerius 2-4 0-1 4, Shaquille Hall 0-0 0-0 0, Jamar Reese 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 25-56 24-41 81.
CC 41 45 — 86
PCC 36 45 — 81
3-point goals – CCCC 5-11 (Herrera 3-5, Ray 2-4, Marshall 0-2), PCC 7-22 (Beck 3-6, Rutherford 2-5, Smith 1-3, Thomas 1-5, Baldwin 0-1, Gordon 0-2, Hayes 0-1, Valerius 0-1). Rebounds – CCCC 46 (Modupe 14), PCC 37 (Hayes 8). Assists – CCCC 6 (Wade 4), PCC 9 (Beck, Hayes, Valerius 2 each). Turnovers – CCCC 14, PCC 12. Total fouls – CCCC 27, PCC 33. Fouled out – Baldwin, Rutherford, Valerius, Green. Technicals – Thomas, Cloud bench.
Cloud women 76, Pratt 49
The 21st-ranked Lady T-birds started the second half with a 19-2 run to break the game wide open.
Pratt hung tough for a while behind 17 first-half points from Phylica Freeman, but the T-birds forced 11 second-half turnovers and hit 16 of 30 field goals in the final twenty minutes while holding Pratt to six-of-29 shooting in the second half.
Cloud County (23-2, 9-2 West) had three players in double figures.
Freeman led all scorers with 19, but Pratt fell to 3-21 overall and 2-8 in Jayhawk West games heading into Wednesday’s game at Seward County.
The Beavers will host Dodge City (3-22, 1-10) Saturday night for “Think Pink” night in the Beaver Dome.
Cloud women 76, Pratt 49
CCCC: Ivory Russell 9 0-0 18, Christy Nelson 1 (4) 0-0 14, Arika Ullman (3) 1-2 10, Mariah Metoyer 4 0-2 8, Mandy Poke 3 2-3 8, Emma Ostermann 2 (1) 0-0 7, Kylie Moore 2 0-0 4, Maggie Schuetz 2 0-2 4, Kristy Herman 1 1-1 3, Brittany Griswold 0 0-0 0, Lacey Wallingford 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 24 (8) 4-10 76.
PCC: Phylicia Freeman 8 3-5 19, Dashia Williams 3 2-4 8, Ricci Lambert 2 1-2 5, Whitney Slater 1 2-2 2, Jazmine Bell 1 1-2 3, Corinna Hoyt 0 3-4 3, Laramie Lawrence (1) 0-0 3, Jordan Moss 1 0-0 2, Abbey Rudd 1 0-0 2, Kandece Money 0 0-0 0, Kikki Pinder 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 17 (1) 12-19 49.
CC 39 37 — 76
PCC 29 20 — 49
Pratt, Kan. —
