By MIKE KESSINGER

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mkessinger@gctelegram.com

Before any time had come off the clock to start the game, Garden City Community College already had a one-point lead. At the end of the 40 minutes, the Broncbusters had a much larger lead and a pretty big win to go with it.

With an 89-76 win over Cloud County at Perryman Athletic Complex on Saturday, the Busters won their second-straight at home and moved to .500 in Jayhawk Conference play.

"I'm really happy with the kids," GCCC head coach Kris Baumann said. "They're the one's that dug themselves out of this 0-2 hole in our conference. I'm really happy with the way they came back. I thought they played really hard on their home floor the last two games. I thought they played exceptionally hard."

A technical called on Cloud for a pregame dunk during warm ups gave the Busters the first lead when Jordan Ragan hit 1-of-2 free throws. He did it with the Garden City pep band playing.

"I just kind of got them out of my head and just tried to concentrate and hit the free throws," Ragan said.

Ragan didn't have any trouble clearing his head from there as he scored 23 points. He hit 8-of-13 shots, including five 3-pointers. As nice a game as Ragan had, Corey Claitt had an even bigger game for the Busters. Claitt had a game-high 28 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and had seven assists. He came up just three assists short of a triple-double.

"I thought Corey was outstanding," Baumann said. "That's a big-time game in the Jayhawk Conference. I thought he really stepped up and had a great game tonight."

Leading by six at the end of the first half, the Busters (13-4, 2-2) did everything they needed to keep Cloud County from ever getting too close in the second 20 minutes. It all started with a Garden City 9-0 run to open the half, then progressed to the Busters stopping any big run the Thunderbirds would make. The Busters even got a little help from Cloud County. After an Oleg Kovalov 3-pointer got the Thunderbirds within 59-53 mid-way through the second half, Garden City responded with a two-point bucket.

On the Thunderbirds ensuing possession, they got the ball back under their basket after it was knocked out of bounds. On the inbound pass, the ball sailed out past the free throw line where no one was. Derrick Tarvin near the free throw line ran out to the ball, then took the all the way down the court for a layup. From there, the Busters maintained control in a game that had plenty of extra pushing and shoving and words spoken.

"There's always going to be a little bit of jawing and those kinds of things," Baumann said. "The biggest thing is, you have to keep your

composure and play through it. At the end of the night the scoreboard speaks for itself."

Along with Claitt and Ragan in double-figure scoring for Garden City, Tyrone Flemming added 16 points.

"We're practicing harder and we're actually shooting better in the games," Ragan said after the Busters .531 percent from floor. "Guys are playing more together and its harder to win on the road in this league. But you have to get wins on the road in conference."

The Busters will get their chance for a conference road win at Barton County on Wednesday.

Cloud County had four players score 10 or more as Kendall Russell and Rudy Meo each had 16.

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Cloud Co. 35 41 -- 76

Garden City 41 48 -- 89

CLOUD COUNTY (10-7, 2-1): Russell 6-9 4-7 16, Adams 3-8 2-2 10, Farmer 4-15 5-7 13, Meo 2-8 11-11 16, Blocker 3-7 0-0 6, Kovalov 2-5 0-0 6, Tate 0-1 0-0 0, Moss 3-3 0-0 9, Antenen 0-2 0-0 0, White-Ready 0-0 0-0 0, Taylor 0-1 0-0 0. Totals -- 23-59 22-27 76.

GARDEN CITY (13-4, 2-2): Young 3-5 0-0 9, Ragan 8-13 2-6 23, Claitt 9-20 8-14 28, Baird 1-3 1-1 3, Link 3-7 0-3 6, Flemming 8-12 0-3 16, McNabb 0-0 0-0 0, Tarvin 1-2 0-2 2, Ottley 0-1 0-0 0. White 0-0 0-0 0, Brown 1-1 0-2 2. Totals -- 34-64 11-31 89.

3-Point Goals -- Cloud Co. 8-21 (Moss 3-3, Adams 2-7, Kovalov 2-5, Meo 1-2, Farmer 0-2, Antenen 0-2); Garden City 10-23 (Ragan 5-9, Young 3-5, Claitt 2-6, Flemming 0-2, Tarvin 0-1). Fouled out -- Cloud Co., Russell, Meo; Garden City White. Rebounds -- Cloud Co. 41 (Russell 10, Farmer 10); Garden City 42 (Claitt 10). Assists -- Cloud Co. 11 (Kovalov 3); Garden City 15 (Claitt 7). Total fouls -- Cloud Co. 20, Garden City 24.