Dodge City men's basketball returned home for the first time since the season opener and this time faced off with a Jayhawk Conference foe taking on Cloud County and the Thunderbirds would use the three-point basket to get the better of the Conquistadors 101-90. 

The loss drops the Conqs to 4-4 on the season and 1-1 in KJCCC action. 

After an initial three-pointer by Cloud County, the Conqs answered with a 6-0 run on three baskets inside the paint leading to an early Thunderbirds timeout. Three minutes into the contest Cloud County would hit their second three-point to even the contest up at 6-6 but the Conqs would swing the lead back into their favor. A Keshawn Brown Jr. bucket gave the Conqs a 25-20 lead with 7:22 left in the contest the lead would get to nine on a Koch-Deng Koch dunk making it 30-21 with 6:18 left in the first half. The lead remained with the Conqs until the 1:42 mark of the first half when Cloud County tied the game at 37-37 and then the Thunderbirds drained another three-pointer to grab the 40-39 lead and would take a 45-42 advantage into halftime. 

In the second half, the Conqs pushed to within one at 56-55 on a pair of Mynor Strong free throws four and a half minutes into the second half. A Fred Saunders would get a layup and the Conqs grabbed the lead in the second half at 57-56 with just over 15 minutes remaining. Cloud County countered with a 13-0 run to lead 71-59 and take control of the contest and the Thunderbirds would have another run in them later in the second half. The Conqs would not give up fighting until the end getting the deficit to single digits in the final minute, but Cloud County made some free throws to maintain a comfortable lead and the Conqs fell 101-90. 

In the loss, the Conqs surrendered 16 three-pointers to Cloud County who shot 46.2% from the floor and 50% from three-point range for the game. The Conqs shot 41.3% but were only 4-25 from three-point range. Both teams took advantage of the charity stripe as Conqs were 20-28 and Cloud County was 25-33. 

Derrick Rivers had a career-best 21 points for the Conqs with five rebounds, while Brown Jr. chipped in 17 points. Wesly Rosa had his second straight double-double with a career-high 15 points, grabbing 14 rebounds and adding four blocks. Strong tallied 11 points with six rebounds and three assists and Saunders had his first double-figure performance as a Conq with 10 points and grabbed five rebounds. 

The Conqs hit the road to take on Cowley on Tuesday, November 26th to continue conference play with tipoff at 7:30 pm.