CONCORDIA, KS — The Neosho County Panthers took to the road for their 19th KJCCC game of the season, and defense was the key to Saturday night's victory over the Cloud County T-Birds.The Panthers defense smothered the T-birds holding them to just 30 points in the first half and continued in the second half held them to just 40 points to claim a 78-70 Jayhawk road victory. Entering Saturday's game, Cloud County was averaging 88.9 ppg, but the Panther defense forced a very good shooting Cloud team into shooting 35% from the field in the first half…46% in the second half and 41% for the game. "I thought our guys did a lot of very good things this game, but defense was the one thing I felt contributed the most to this victory," said Neosho County head coach, Jeremy Coombs. "The guys bought into what we are trying to do defensively and that's why they were able to put together a complete defensive game."
 At one point in the second half the Panther's had the T-Birds down as many as 12 points but the T-Birds wouldn't go away and with 3min left in the game had cut the lead to just 2 points and then with just 2 minutes to play the game would be tied at 64. The Panthers defense came up big late as they held the T-Birds to just 6 points in the final two minutes and several late Panther free-throws helped secure a 78-70 road win for the Panthers. "I was very proud of the guys for doing all the things that were needed to win this game," Coombs said. "Putting together a complete game, taking care of the basketball, playing as a team and knocking down free-throws haven't been our strong suit this year but we came together as a team and got a great road win vs a very good Jayhawk opponent." The Panthers will now look to their next game as they host the Pratt Beavers Wednesday night at 7:30pm. In their last meeting the Pratt Beavers absolutely scorched the nets from three and the Panthers found themselves down 22 points at one points but the scrappy Panthers battled their way back and lost a heart breaker 86-88. "All losses hurt but that game at Pratt hurt us pretty good. We didn't play well and found ourselves in a hole early but the guys didn't give up and actually took the lead at one point in the game but ultimately we missed two late opportunities to push that game into OT. "Coombs said. "Pratt just knocked off Coffeyville and is playing with a lot of confidence so we will need to be ready to go."