Knights late charge falls short against Thunderbirds

Concordia, Kan. – North Platte Community College men's basketball team returned to the hardwood on Saturday afternoon for an early season rematch with Cloud County Community College. North Platte rebounded from an early deficit, but a late surge pushed the Thunderbirds past the Knights, 67-73.

Cloud County opened the scoring with a bucket on their opening possession of the game. North Platte answered back as Nico Felici got his contested jumper to fall twenty-one seconds later, 2-2. Knights and Thunderbirds continued to trade baskets over the next 3:27, until the Thunderbirds stretched their lead to three on a deep three point shot with 15:34 to play.

A jumper by Danilo Matovic brought the deficit back to one, but Cloud County responded by pushing their lead to six as the clock moved inside eleven minutes to play, 11-17. North Platte answered out of the timeout as Caleb Horne found German Plotnikov in transition for the open layup, 13-17.

Knights continued to work on the offensive end cutting the deficit back to four inside the final 7:24, as Matovic was able to get his tip-in to fall, 22-26. Cloud limited the Knights to just six more points in the first half and took a ten-point lead into the break, 25-35.

The Knights offense came to life out of the break quickly eating into the Cloud County lead. Plotnikov began the surge on the Knights opening possession, before Denys Bachurin connected from downtown to cut the deficit to five, 30-35.

A short burst by Cloud County extended their lead to twelve, but the Knights responded with a 11-0 run to cut the deficit to one with 14:11 to play in regulation. During that stretch, Bachurin connected on a three from long distance to energize the Knights offensively.

"Denys gave us the shot we needed off the bench," said head coach Kevin O'Connor.

Plotnikov connected on a single free throw attempt after a technical foul was called on the Thunderbirds bench to tie the game up, 42-42. North Platte took their first lead of the game just over a minute later as Felici connected on two free throw opportunities, 44-42.

Cloud County answered with an 18-2 run over the next six minutes to push their lead to fourteen with 6:20 to play. The Thunderbirds lead grew to sixteen before the Knights began to chip away at the deficit. A Bachurin floater and back-to-back threes from long range narrowed the Cloud County lead down to eight with 2:38 remaining, 57-65.

North Platte continued their work on the defensive end and trimmed the deficit down to six just over a minute to play on a steal and layup by Felici, 61-67. Thunderbirds extended their lead back to nine but an opportunity at the free throw line by Slavomyr Marchenko, combined with another three by Bachurin cut the Cloud County lead to five with forty seconds to play.

Knights down two possessions and inside the final seconds were forced to foul and make Cloud County earn the win at the free throw line. The Thunderbirds were only able to get three of six attempts to fall, but it was enough to distance themselves and earn the victory.

Bachurin led all scorers with 24 points and eight rebounds coming off the bench for the Knights. Felici and Plotnikov rounded out the North Platte double-digit scorers with 15 and 14 points, respectively.

North Platte (2-4) returns to the hardwood on Saturday, November 20 against Hastings College JV. Tip is set for 11:30am inside the Lynn Farrell Arena.