Men’s Basketball: Raiders Win Region 9

The Central Community College men's basketball team won the Region 9 title with a 72-60 win at Southeast Community College on Saturday.

The game started out as the Blake Daberkow show as he scored CCC's first seven points. The Storm took their biggest lead of the first half, 25-18, with 6:26 to play. The Raiders responded with a 6-1 run to trail 26-24 at the 2:45 mark. CCC went on to lead 32-30 at halftime.

The second half was close as the teams were tied at 47-47 midway through the half. At the 6:30 mark, SCC's Denim Johnson scored a bucket to make the score 58-53, with the Raiders in front. That's when CCC's offense and defense came to life as Jayden Byabato and Trey Deveaux scored a combined 14 points to give the Raiders their biggest lead, 72-57, with just over two minutes to play. The CCC defense held the Storm to seven points and the Raiders won the contest, 72-60.

Deveaux scored 25 points while Byabato finished with a dozen points. PJ Davis and Preston Thomas each scored 10 points.

"Trey really stepped up and played well, especially in the second half," said CCC head coach John Ritzdorf. "Jayden and PJ hit some big shots in the second half. Preston was very good in the first half, getting us off to a good start."

The win was CCC's fifth consecutive and gives the Raiders a 21-9 record.